- LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists
said on
Wednesday they have finished the first genetic map of a plant in
a
groundbreaking achievement that could herald a new green
revolution.
-
- The tiny flowering weed Arabidopsis thaliana, or Thale
cress,
may not look like much but the sequencing of its genome, all its
nearly
26,000 genes, provides the green chapter in the book of life and
a
blueprint for a greater understanding of all plants.
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- Scientists said knowing how its
genes function and what
they do will lead to hardier, more nutritious,
higher yielding crops, better
tasting and longer-lasting food and new
insights into human diseases and
how to treat them.
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- ``Genome sequencing
changes the way we do biology. From
this point onwards plant science
will never be the same again and genetics
will never be the same
again," Professor Mike Bevan, of the John Innes
Centre plant
research center in England, told a news conference.
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- Along with the human genome and
the genetic maps of yeast,
the nematode worm, fruitfly and several
bacteria, Arabidopsis is a model
organism that researchers say will
increase scientific knowledge of ourselves
and the world we live
in.
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- Four-Year International Effort
-
- Up to 300 scientists in Europe,
the United States and
Japan worked on the publicly funded Arabidopsis
Genome Initiative that
cost about $60 million.
-
- The sequencing of the final
three chromosomes, which
is published in the latest edition of the
science journal Nature, is the
result of four years of research. The
first two chromosomes were mapped
a year ago.
-
- With about 26,000 genes the
Arabidopsis genome is very
compact but it contains many of the same
genes as crop plants such as wheat,
rice and barley, as well as genes
closely related to human genes linked
to hereditary deafness, blindness
and cancers.
-
- A quarter of medicines are derived from plants so scientists
believe Arabidopsis could clues about new remedies and treatments.
-
- The Arabidopsis
genome is twice as big as the fruitfly's
but only a fraction of the
size of the human genome which has 60,000 to
100,000 genes, 97 percent
of which has been mapped.
-
- But scientists believe it is equally, if not more
important.
-
- ``If you take an ecosystem perspective it is definitely
more
important than the human genome," said Dr Ottoline Leyser, of
the
University of York, who worked on the project.
-
- ``If you want to improve
ecosystems or human health you
have to start with the plant
genome," she added.
-
- Like the human genome, all the data on Arabidopsis is
freely available on the Internet.
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- Powerhouse Of The
Plant World
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- The beauty of Arabidopsis, a scraggly relative of the
mustard plant and cabbage that is found along railways and in gardens and
fields around the globe, it that it grows rapidly and completes its life
cycle in six weeks.
-
- Arabidopsis is also easy for scientists to clone and
less expensive than bigger genomes to sequence.
-
- It has been described as the
powerhouse of the plant
world and is a favorite of scientists because
it is so easy to study. So
far the function of only 10 percent of the
plant's genes are known but
it is already providing plant biologists
with new information.
-
- ``This plant has a vast number of surprises for
scientists,"
said Bevan. ``Our analysis shows that there are about
100 genes in Arabidopsis
that are very closely related to human disease
genes. Diseases such as
hereditary deafness, blindness and
cancers."
-
- In addition to providing lots of new genes to study,
the plant
genome could help scientists answer vexing question and quell
public
concern about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and how they
interact with other plants in the environment.
-
- "We have the possibility
to eliminate unknowns,"
said Leyser.
-
- "This is a win-win
situation," she added. "We'll
have more information about
genes and how to use them."
-
- _____
-
-
- How The Code Will Be Used
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk
12-14-00
-
- * Plants produce more than 100,000 chemicals, some of
which are
already used as drugs. Now more will be used.
-
- * The basic biology of 250,000
flowering plants and grasses
such as rice, wheat and corn will be
better understood and researchers
will be able to make foods that last
longer on supermarket shelves, are
lower in fat or higher in protein or
tastier.
-
- *
It will be possible to find out which genes help plants
cope with
different environments.
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- * Plant breeders will be able to make hardier varieties
with greater yield and stress resistance.
-
- * Comparison of plant and
animal DNA will reveal much
about the fundamental design of life.
Scientists can compare the weed's
code to other known genomes,
including those of yeast, fruit flies and
roundworms.
-
- * Interpreting the
working draft of the human genome
will become easier because many genes
that perform basic functions have
been retained by humans during
evolution.
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