 After
an international effort, Arabidopsis thaliana, the
mustard plant, became the first plant to have its genome
sequence--the roadmap of its genes--completed. Following this, the National Science Foundation (NSF), a major
funder of this effort, launched Arabidopsis 2010,
a program to determine the function of all Arabidopsis genes
by 2010.
Focusing on the root of the mustard plant, a research team led by
Duke University biologist Philip Benfey created a detailed
mosaic of cells showing where and when some 22,000 of the
plant's roughly 28,000 genes are activated within growing
tissue. This "gene expression map" is helping
scientists track how a complex living tissue ultimately arises
from the blueprint of thousands of genes.
The results are the first to demonstrate this level of
understanding of genes for any organism. It marks the first
time that the vast majority of an organism's genes
have been tracked as they switch on and off as cells grow,
continually divide and ultimately differentiate to build
specialized tissue.
The ability to track genes on this scale is critical to
answering one of biology's basic, yet most puzzling
questions: How do distinct yet coordinated organs and specialized
cells arise from an endless division of cells that initially
seemed very similar?
The researchers, funded by NSF’s Biological Sciences
Directorate, found that different types of mustard plant root
cells tended to have particular sets of genes that were clustered
together on certain chromosomes. Understanding these patterns
of cell types and gene clusters is helping biologists decipher
the genetic machinery of development, and may eventually lead
to new ways to improve crops and domestic animals.
How will studies of neuroanatomy help us understand life forms as different as dinosaurs and humans? [Next]
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