How to Improve Yield: Ask Mother

A group of scientists from the University of Oxford, in collaboration with researchers in France and in Germany, has identified one of the processes that controls seed size in maize, and similar mechanisms are thought to be active in other cereals. Seed size has been known for some time to be controlled by the maternal plant, but how?  

The Oxford group, lead by Prof Hugh Dickinson, has discovered part of the answer: only the maternal copy of a critical gene is active in developing seeds, while the copy derived from the father is “switched off”, or silenced, by a process known as imprinting. The gene encodes a putative signaling molecule in the endosperm layer, a nourishing placenta-like tissue surrounding the developing seed that increases the flow of nutrients from the mother plant.

The discovery has important implications. “By understanding the complex level of gene control in the developing grain, we have opened up opportunities in improving crop yield” says Dickinson. The cereal grain is a staple food of the world’s population: with the changing climate and growing population, the need for sustainable agriculture is increasingly pressing”, he adds.

More information at http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk/media/pressreleases/07_07_30_maize.html