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Vicki Chandler, Chief Program Officer – Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, today at Bio-X

She studies plants, and corn in particular (2.5x as many genes as humans). Specifically, with the B-gene, she finds paramutation as a mechanism for epigenetic gene silencing across generations. In other words, gene expression can be determined by environmental events experienced by one’s parents or grandparents (none of this is detectable in the genetic code itself). “Transcription states stably transmit to progeny. You could say it’s Lamarckian evolution, but it’s a new era.”

Since corn is a diploid genome, I had to ask her about polyploidal plants… and now I am wondering if epigenetic dilution is a contributing factor for the robust growth and health of plants that are artificially made polyploidal.

6 responses to “Mysteries of Plants”

  1. gcquinn Avatar
    gcquinn

    wonderful capture of her in mid sentence

    Reply
  2. TomiTapio Avatar
    TomiTapio

    With a dash of green light 🙂

    Reply
  3. hallowed bicycle Avatar
    hallowed bicycle

    Thank you, S.J.. This picture taught me something new.

    Reply
  4. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Tomi – heh, with a hint of Poison Ivy…

    "Plant mistress employs an arsenal of fast-growing seed pods…and other assorted plant menaces."

    Reply
  5. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    Ultra cool post-Lamarkianism: "paramutation as a mechanism for epigenetic gene silencing across generations"

    What is the process/mechanism of inheritable "paramutation"??? What is transmitting the "Transcription states stably to progeny." Is it surviving meiosis, or is it asexual

    PS: Dig Poison Ivy. 😉

    Note: via Wikipedia…

    "Polyploidy may occur due to abnormal cell division during metaphase I in meiosis. It is most commonly found in plants. (Haploidy may also occur as a normal stage in an organism’s life. A haploid has only one set of chromosomes.)

    Polyploidy occurs in some animals, such as goldfish,[1] salmon, and salamanders, but is especially common among ferns and flowering plants (see Hibiscus rosa-sinensis), including both wild and cultivated species.

    Wheat, for example, after millennia of hybridization and modification by humans, has strains that are diploid (two sets of chromosomes), tetraploid (four sets of chromosomes) with the common name of durum or macaroni wheat, and hexaploid (six sets of chromosomes) with the common name of bread wheat.

    Many agriculturally important plants of the genus Brassica are also tetraploids; their relationship is described by the Triangle of U.

    Polyploidy also occurs normally in some animal tissues, such as human muscle tissues.[2]

    The occurrence of polyploidy is a mechanism of speciation and is known to have resulted in new species of the plant Salsify (also known as "goatsbeard").

    Reply
  6. mikescottnz Avatar
    mikescottnz

    The new euphemistic variant on the word transgenic is now ‘cisgenic’. Its partly playing with words.

    Reply

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