Scientists Study Gene Clusters in Plants

Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC) are striving to seek more information about the genetics and evolution of natural product pathways in plants. Prof. Anne Osbourn of the JIC and colleagues are studying the natural antimicrobial compound produced by oats and found that the genes that produced this compound are clustered. Gene clusters are common in bacteria but are extremely rare in plants so the team searched for more gene clusters in model plant Arabidopsis and investigated how these clusters have evolved.

They found out that there is an ‘evolutionary playground' in the genome of the plant where recombinations occur more frequently, bringing together various genes. When the gene clusters produce compounds that help the plant like fighting off pests, natural selection favors these clusters. When one part of the cluster is lost, toxic intermediates accumulate. Thus, the cluster is maintained complete, increasing the possibility that all of the genes would be inherited together.

These findings could be used by scientists to fully exploit the potential of plants to produce new drugs, herbicides, and other important plant products. The results of the study are published in the August 29, 2011 issue of Proceeding of the National Academy of Science.

Read more information at http://news.jic.ac.uk/2011/08/anneosbournevolutionaryplayground/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NewsFromTheJohnInnesCentre+%28News+from+the+John+Innes+Centre%29.