Abstract
A Window on Maize Evolution
Highlights
Just how plants let evolution play with this extra set of genes has been the subject of study in Arabidopsis, a little dicot with the big distinction of being the white rat, research-wise, of the plant world
Arabidopsis is multiply tetraploid, but has Selected PLoS Biology research articles are accompanied by a synopsis written for a general audience to provide non-experts with insight into the significance of the published work
The researchers homed in on 37 stretches of sorghum DNA containing 2,943 shared genes to use as a ‘‘before evolution’’ proxy picture with which to compare the ‘‘after evolution’’ current maize genome. They found that 43% of the genes were retained to at least some major extent in maize, with a disproportionate share of the retained genes encoding transcription factors
Summary
Between one generation and the the millions or billions of base pairs that make up an organism’s genetic material go through subtle but sometimes significant changes, with bits added, deleted, and moved around in the off chance that the new combination may serve its owner better than the previous one did its parents. They provide their owners with more raw material for evolution, allowing them to undergo major alterations in genetic composition without the risk of losing fundamental function.
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