‘Magic’ plant discovery could lead to growing food in space Investigadores descubren mutación genética que permite a la planta del tabaco crecer en zonas áridas
Queensland, Australia
November 3, 2015
Professor Peter Waterhouse and Dr Julia Bally have discovered a plant gene that could speed up plant genetics research and pave the way for growing food on a space station.
Queensland University of Technology scientists have discovered the gene that will open the door for space-based food production.
Professor Peter Waterhouse, a plant geneticist at QUT, discovered the gene in the ancient Australian native tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana, known as Pitjuri to indigenous Aboriginal tribes.
Professor Waterhouse made the discovery while tracing the history of the Pitjuri plant, which for decades has been used by geneticists as a model plant upon which to test viruses and vaccines.
"This plant is the 'laboratory rat' of the molecular plant world," he said, "we think of it as a magical plant with amazing properties.
"We now know that in 1939 its seeds were sent by an Australian scientist to a scientist in America and have been passed from lab to lab all over the world.
"By sequencing its genome and looking through historical records we have been able to determine that the original plant came from the Granites area near the Western Australia and Northern Territory border, close to where Wolf Creek was filmed.
"We know, through using a molecular clock and fossil records, that this particular plant has survived in its current form in the wild for around 750,000 years."
Lead researcher Dr Julia Bally said determining the exact species had led researchers on a quest to find out how the plant managed to survive in the wild for such a long period of time.
"What we found may have a big impact on future plant biotechnology research," Dr Bally said.
''We have discovered that it is the plant equivalent of the nude mouse used in medical research.
"The plant has lost its "immune system" and has done that to focus its energies on being able to germinate and grow quickly, rapidly flower, and set seed after even a small amount of rainfall.
"Its focus is on creating small flowers but large seeds and on getting these seeds back into the soil in time for the next rain.
"The plant has worked out how to fight drought - its number one predator - in order to survive through generations."
Professor Waterhouse, a molecular geneticist with QUT's Centre for Tropical Crops and Biocommodities, said scientists could use this discovery to investigate other niche or sterile growing environments where plants were protected from disease - and space was an intriguing option.
"So the recent film The Martian, which involved an astronaut stranded on Mars growing potatoes while living in an artificial habitat, had a bit more science fact than fiction than people might think," he said.
Professor Waterhouse said the team's findings also have implications for future genetic research back here on Earth.
"Scientists can now know how to turn other species into "nude mice" for research purposes. So just as nude mice can be really good models for cancer research, "nude" versions of crop plants could also speed up agricultural research," he said.
Professor Waterhouse said the fact that the N. benthamiana variety from central Australia had doubled its seed size also opened the door for investigations into how N. benthamiana could be used commercially as a biofactory, as seeds were an excellent place in which to make antibodies for pharmaceutical use.
Researchers around the world can access Professor Waterhouse's open source website, to study the genomes of seven family members: http://www.benthgenome.qut.edu.au/
Dr Bally and Professor Waterhouse have lodged a patent on their study (Organisms with Modified Growth Characteristics and Methods of Making Them) and a research paper, The extremophile Nicotiana bethamiana has traded viral defence for early vigour, has been published Nature Plant http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.165
Investigadores descubren mutación genética que permite a la planta del tabaco crecer en zonas áridas
Source: Fundacion Antama
Investigadores australianos de la Universidad Tecnológica de Queensland han estudiado el genoma de la antigua planta del tabaco nativo australiano (Nicotiana benthamiana) y han descubierto una mutación genética que es la que permite a la planta crecer en zonas áridas. Las primeras semillas del tabaco nativo australiano fueron estudiadas por primera vez en 1939 por un científico estadounidense y desde entonces ha ido pasando por laboratorios de todo el mundo para ser estudiadas.
Ahora, investigadores australianos, publican en la revista Nature Plants cómo la planta de tabaco australiano controla su sistema inmunológico para conseguir un crecimiento rápido de la planta y así poder sobrevivir en zonas áridas.
Conocida como Pitjuri por los indígenas aborígenes, el ADN de la semilla del tabaco nativo australiano ha sido comparada con el resto de variedades existentes y se ha descubierto una mutación en el gen RDR1, el que ha permitido su supervivencia en situaciones extremas de sequía en las zonas centrales de Australia.
Además, el tamaño de esta semilla se ha duplicado, lo que ha dado a los científicos intuir que las semillas podrían ser usadas como fábricas de anticuerpos para usos farmacéuticos. Los datos obtenidos por el profesor Waterhouse son de acceso público, pueden ser consultados en este enlace.
“Ahora vemos que la película de ‘El Marciano’, que contaba la historia de un astronauta olvidado en Marte y cultivaba patatas en un hábitat artificial, tenía un poco más de un ase científico de lo que la gente podría pensar,” explicaba el investigador.
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