United Kingdom
November 13, 2008
A scientific team from
The
John Innes Centre
and University of St
Andrews has identified a key gene that was transferred from
a Sicilian plant into a close relative in Britain, showing how
genetic cross-talk between species can be important for
evolution.
The researchers unravelled the remarkable history of an Italian
interloper, a close relative of the common British weed
Groundsel, that was first brought to the UK 300 years ago. In an
amazing piece of genetic detective work, to be published in
Science on Friday, they tracked down a small region of DNA in
the British weed that came from its Sicilian relative.
This region of DNA modifies the flowers, making the weed more
attractive to pollinators. The results demonstrate how natural
genetic exchanges can allow important traits to be transferred
between species, much as a word from one human language might be
usefully incorporated into another.
This goes against the typical view of evolution as a one-way
street in which each species evolves as a separate, independent
genetic lineage. Instead, hybridisation between closely related
forms may allow evolutionary cross-talk in which valuable genes
can be exchanged and preserved. The result is greater
flexibility and potential for diversity during evolution.
Reference: 'Regulatory genes control a key morphological and
ecological trait transferred between species' doi
10.1126/science.1164371
The John Innes Centre is an independent, world-leading
research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 800
staff. JIC is based on Norwich Research Park and carries out
high quality fundamental, strategic and applied research to
understand how plants and microbes work at the molecular,
cellular and genetic levels. The JIC also trains scientists and
students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and
communicates its science to end-users and the general public.
The JIC is grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological
Sciences Research Council.
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council is
the UK funding agency for research in the life sciences.
Sponsored by Government, BBSRC annually invests around £420M in
a wide range of research that makes a significant contribution
to the quality of life for UK citizens and supports a number of
important industrial stakeholders including the agriculture,
food, chemical, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors.
http://www.bbsrc.ac.uk
This work was funded by BBSRC, EMBO, HFSP and NERC |
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