Thursday, November 13, 2014

DNA Duplication's Role in Plant Regeneration

It is not uncommon for plants to get eaten by animals that happen upon them, but how is it that these half-eaten plants can regenerate and grow back? 

For a while scientists have known that about 90% of plants duplicate their genomes without cell division, but they were unsure of the reason. The association between plant regeneration and DNA duplication was not made until just recently by researchers at the University of Illinois. The findings published in Molecular Ecology state that when plants are eaten or otherwise damaged they will overcompensate and duplicate their DNA multiple times. This DNA duplication allows for the regeneration of the lost plant matter, and also allows for the plant to become more fertile.

In a 2011 study, the replication of plant DNA was observed, showing that plants that were damaged had rampant DNA duplication that occurred. These plants also showed an increase in regeneration after being destroyed. In this new study, however, plants that could duplicate their genomes were crossed with plants that could not. The offspring showed a persistence in the association between the two traits, showing that they influenced each other. This meant that a plant had to be damaged to show the increased DNA duplication, and that a plant without this ability didn't show a high amount of regeneration. Plants that couldn't duplicate their DNA in this way showed a decrease in fertility also.

Knowing about how plants regenerate is an important thing in ecology. It also help us unravel clues about how DNA replication works and the ways that it can help a plant function properly. The ability to regenerate lost plant matter is a very huge thing for a plant to be able to do, and since it appears in 90% of them, being knowledgeable about the workings of it is important. Hopefully one day we'll know a lot more about how this process works, and it might potentially lead to other scientific breakthroughs involving regeneration.

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