New Study May Lead Plants to Breed Quicker

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Germany have identified the molecular signals used by the plant Arabis alpina, popularly known as Alpine rock cress, to register its age and to determine if it has been exposed to vernalization. They discovered that the plant determines its age based on the quantity of a short ribonucleic acid known as miR156. The result of the said study will thus enable the researchers to manipulate the concentration of miR156 to make the plants flower earlier thus, making them breed quicker.

A purely regulatory nucleic acid, miR156 works like an hourglass. Just as the sand trickles through an hourglass and indicates the amount of time elapsed, the concentration of ribonucleic acid in the Alpine rock cress decreases from week to week enabling the plant to measure its age. When the ribonucleic acid reaches its lowest level, this signals that the plant is old enough for flowers to form when it is also exposed to vernalization.

For more information, see the Max Planck Institute's news release http://www.mpipz.mpg.de/478535/news_publication_7299700?c=13599. Access the full journal article at http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6136/1094.full.