Who could have predicted maize geneticists would be so interested in maize genes? The entry I posted last night on Purple plant1 and Colored aleurone1 easily received more traffic in its first day on the site (it’s still got a long way to go before it catches long term readership attractors like water chestnuts and [...]
Posts under ‘biology’
Two classical maize genes, synteny, and the mystery of the missing gene
Colored aleurone1 and Purple plant1 are both genes with long histories in maize research and are involved in the regulation of anthocyanin biosynthesis. The mutant version of purple plant1 does exactly what it sounds like. (In the proper genetic background) it has plants producing anthocyanin (a purple plant pigment) everywhere, resulting in purple plants. The mutant form of colored aleurone1 was identified from a mutant that changed the color of individual corn kernels. The two genes are also duplicates (homeologs) resulting from the maize whole genome duplication. More details, pictures of the mutant plants, a quick and interesting syntenic analysis and the mystery of the missing gene, in the full post.
Oliva Judson’s Salute to Grasses
Talking up Olivia Judson (an English evolutionary biologist who has the trick of getting the general public excited about biology), her post on why grasses are so important in particular, and, for some reason bird’s teeth (they wanted to slip in somewhere).
Scientists at India’s NIPGR Create a Longer-Lasting Tomato (Studying The Regulation of Fruit Ripening)
Author’s note: This would seem to be the week for vegetables I hated as a kid. Yesterday was onion, today tomato, if there’s a story about brinjal/eggplant in the next few days we’ll have hit all the big ones.
I was recently pointed to an early publication paper that went up on the Proceedings [...]
Some Evidence Suggests Trees Are Growing Faster
In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper from this week that has been picked up across the popular press, researchers in Maryland report that the trees they’re studying are growing measurably faster than they “should” be.
From US News and World Report:
During the past 22 years CO2 levels at SERC have risen 12%, [...]
We got to genetics in class today and the story of the shrunken 2 gene
The origin story of shrunken2, the gene behind much of the sweet corn we eat today. Pictures of the phenotype of CAL mutants in arabidopsis (the gene I mentioned last week for its role in differentiating between broccoli and cauliflower).
First Day Teaching (epilogue)
The belated after-action report from my first day teaching, and a question about how to get people excited about learning the parts of a flower. For me, it was the ABC model of floral development, but both time and a lack of background in genetics prevent me from using that as my hook to draw students in.