[extropy-chat] FWD [forteana] Studies find plants can self-correct genetic flaws

[Terry W. Colvin]

http://www.keralanext.com/news/readnext,1.asp?id=159702&pg=2

Studies find plants can self-correct genetic flaws

Plants inherit secret stashes of genetic information from their
long-dead ancestors and can use them to correct errors in their own
genes -- a startling capacity for DNA editing and self-repair wholly
unanticipated by modern genetics, researchers said yesterday.

The newly discovered phenomenon, which resembles the caching of early
versions of a computer document for viewing later on, allows plants to
archive copies of genes from generations ago, long assumed to be lost
forever.

Then, in a move akin to choosing their parents, plants can apparently
retrieve selected bits of code from that archive and use them to
overwrite the genes they've inherited directly. The process could
offer survival advantages to plants suddenly burdened with new
mutations or facing environmental threats for which the older genes
were better adapted.

Scientists predicted that by harnessing the still mysterious mechanism
they would be able to control plant diseases and create novel
varieties of crops. If the mechanism can be invoked in animals, as
some tantalized scientists now venture may be possible, it could also
offer a revolutionary way to correct the genetic flaws that lead to
cancer and other diseases.

The team has not found the templates, but evidence suggests they are
pieces of RNA, a molecular cousin of DNA that can be inherited
separately from the chromosomes that carry the primary genetic code in
cells. 

''We think this demonstrates that there's this parallel path of
inheritance that we've overlooked for 100 years, and that's pretty
cool," said Robert Pruitt, a professor of botany and plant pathology
at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., who oversaw the studies
with co-worker Susan Lolle.

The finding represents a ''spectacular discovery," wrote German
molecular biologists Detlef Weigel and Gerd Jurgens in a commentary
accompanying the research in the March 24 issue of the journal Nature,
released yesterday.

The existence of an unorthodox inheritance system does not overturn
the basic rules of genetics worked out by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel
at the turn of the last century, they noted. But like a newly
discovered room in a mansion of treasures, it opens up a mind-boggling
world of possibilities and proves that genetics is still a young science.

''It adds a level of biological complexity and flexibility we hadn't
appreciated," said Lolle.

Rob



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Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1 at mindspring.com >
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