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Discovery of plant ‘nourishing gene’ brings hope for increased crop seed yield and food security
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/discovery_of_plant[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]Discovery of plant ‘nourishing gene’ brings hope for increased crop seed yield and food security [/font]
[font size=3]University of Warwick scientists have discovered a “nourishing gene” which controls the transfer of nutrients from plant to seed - a significant step which could help increase global food production.
The research, led by the University of Warwick in collaboration with the University of Oxford and agricultural biotech research company Biogemma, has identified for the first time a gene, named Meg1, which regulates the optimum amount of nutrients flowing from mother to offspring in maize plants.
Unlike the majority of genes that are expressed from both maternal and paternal chromosomes, Meg1 is expressed only from the maternal chromosomes.
This unusual form of uniparental gene expression, called imprinting, is not restricted to plants, but also occurs in some human genes which are known to regulate the development of the placenta to control the supply of maternal nutrients during fetal growth.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=3]University of Warwick scientists have discovered a “nourishing gene” which controls the transfer of nutrients from plant to seed - a significant step which could help increase global food production.
The research, led by the University of Warwick in collaboration with the University of Oxford and agricultural biotech research company Biogemma, has identified for the first time a gene, named Meg1, which regulates the optimum amount of nutrients flowing from mother to offspring in maize plants.
Unlike the majority of genes that are expressed from both maternal and paternal chromosomes, Meg1 is expressed only from the maternal chromosomes.
This unusual form of uniparental gene expression, called imprinting, is not restricted to plants, but also occurs in some human genes which are known to regulate the development of the placenta to control the supply of maternal nutrients during fetal growth.
…[/font][/font]
