PERTH: A PhD student from Sydney University believes he has made a major breakthrough in plant breeding.
Dr Rodrigo Reis thinks he may have helped discover how to shave years off plant breeding research, by identifying how to use genes to improve drought tolerance and disease resistance.
The results of the research are being published in a major scientific journal, Nature Plant.
“Our research provides crucial insights into how we might improve the environmental adaptation of plants, including the yields of crop species,” he said.
“Although our different cells and organs have exactly the same set of genes, the ability of any organism to turn certain genes on or off within each cell is central to the functioning of the organism. It defines the identity of cells, tissues and organs, and controls responses to the environment.
“You could describe them as ‘master control’ genes. They have the capacity to switch specific genes on and off, determining whether the proteins that these genes code for are present or not. We call this the control of gene expression.
“The presence of these genes ‘switches on’ one of the two options, destruction or repression.”
Now that the researchers have found the switchers, Dr Reis said it would be possible to manipulate them.
Regulating the switcher mechanism should allow them to boost the capacity for environmental adaptation without interfering with development.
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