(Press-News.org) Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have succeeded in unraveling, for the first time, the complete chain of biochemical reactions that controls the synthesis of auxin, the hormone that regulates nearly all aspects of plant growth and development.
Their discovery, detailed in a paper in this week's online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will allow agricultural scientists to develop new ways to enhance or manipulate auxin production to improve the growth and yield of crops and other plants.
More than a century ago, Charles Darwin noticed that plants produced a substance that made them bend toward light, a hormone called auxin that biologists have since found to be essential not only in regulating plant growth but also in patterning their development.
In 2006, a team of San Diego researchers headed by Yunde Zhao, an associate professor of biology at UC San Diego, discovered a family of 11 genes involved in the synthesis of auxin. Building on that work, Zhao and his colleagues at UCSD, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and RIKEN, Japan's natural sciences research institute, have now unraveled the main biochemical pathway leading to the synthesis of auxin.
"How plants synthesize this important hormone had remained a mystery for almost a century," said Zhao. "Several genes had been known to play important roles in auxin biosynthesis in plants, but the information was fragmented and no complete auxin biosynthesis pathways in plants were identified.'
In their study, Zhao and his colleagues used sophisticated genetic approaches in combination with analytical biochemistry to identify a simple two-step chain of biochemical reactions in the genetic model plant Arabidopsis that converts tryptophan to indole-3-acetic acid, the main auxin hormone synthesized in plants.
"The main reason that auxin biosynthesis mechanisms had evaded scientists is that each step in auxin biosynthesis involves many genes, making the genetic dissection of auxin biosynthesis very complicated," said Zhao. "Now that we've identified the main auxin biosynthesis pathway in plants, we will be able to regulate auxin levels in crops and other plants with temporal and spatial precision, providing useful tools for agricultural biotechnology."
"Auxin affects virtually every aspect of plant growth, including most traits that are important for agriculture," said Mark Estelle, a professor of biology at UC San Diego and one of the world's experts on auxin. "For example, auxin regulates plant stature, the number and shape of plant organs, as well as seed and fruit development."
"This discovery has many important implications," he added. "To the basic scientist, knowledge of auxin synthesis will aid in the understanding of many fundamental aspects of plant development. To the farmer, this advance will open up many new opportunities for crop improvement. This is particularly important as our society faces the daunting challenges of a growing global population and a changing climate."
INFORMATION:
Zhao's collaborators were Christina Won, Xiangling Shen, Xinhua Dai and Youfa Cheng of UC San Diego; Kiyoshi Mashiguchi, Hiroyuki Kasahara and Yuji Kamiya of RIKEN; and Zuyu Zheng and Joanne Chory of Salk. The study was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health.
END
bestwebdesignagencies.com, the independent authority on web design and development, has released their list of the best web strategy companies for the month of October 2011. HypeLife Brands has been named as the fifth best web strategy company, providing services which help customers identify key needs for their online presence ranging from the proper type of website, infrastructure, and miscellaneous needs to make their website a success.
The approach to web strategy which HypeLife Brands allows for a custom solution to be planned out based on the overall vision and ...
CHICAGO -- Yoga classes were found to be more effective than a self-care book for patients with chronic low back pain at reducing symptoms and improving function, but they were not more effective than stretching classes, according to a study published Online First by the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"Despite the availability of numerous treatments for chronic back pain, none have proven highly effective, and few have been evaluated for cost-effectiveness," the authors provide as background information. "Self-management strategies, like exercise, are particularly appealing ...
CHICAGO – An analysis of financial payments made by orthopedic device manufacturers to orthopedic surgeons shows that the patterns of payments from 2007 to 2010 appear to be complex with a reduction in the total number of payments and the total amount of funds distributed after payment disclosure was required, as well as an increase in the proportion of consultants with academic affiliations, according to a report in the October 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The article is part of the journal's Health Care Reform series.
"There ...
CHICAGO – A model used to estimate breast cancer survival rates found that the probability that a woman with screen-detected breast cancer will avoid a breast cancer death because of screening mammography may be lower than previously thought, according to a report published Online First by Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
"Today, more people are likely to know a cancer survivor than ever before," the authors write. "Between 1971 and 2007, the number of cancer survivors in the United States more than doubled, from 1.5 percent to 4 percent ...
US Tax Shield was rated as number one tax resolution company by Tax Critics. Tax Critics compared top tax resolution companies based on success rate, customer satisfaction, and experience of attorneys employed, to generate their results. US Tax Shield proved to be successful in an array of tax resolution services from negotiation with the IRS to appeals.
"We took a look at number of qualification when deliberating our decision and US Tax Sheet was by far ahead of its competitors" said Tom Lee, Tax Critics representative. US Tax Shield not only employs highly ...
CHICAGO -- Non-targeted HIV rapid test screening among emergency department patients in metropolitan Paris resulted in identifying only a few new HIV diagnoses, often at late stages and mostly among patients who are in a high-risk group, according to a study published Online First by the Archives of Internal Medicine.
"During the last 15 years, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening combined with early treatment has effectively reduced HIV-related mortality, and some authors have postulated that this strategy plays a key role in controlling the epidemic," the authors ...
A device that can measure and predict how liquids flow under different conditions will ensure consumer products – from make up to ketchup – are of the right consistency.
The technology developed at the University of Sheffield enables engineers to monitor, in real time, how the viscous components (rheology) of liquids change during a production process, making it easier, quicker and cheaper to control the properties of the liquid.
The research is a joint project between the University's Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and the School of Mathematics ...
Le Meridien Amman, a subsidiary of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, has recently welcomed the visual Swedish artist Ragnhild Lunden, as she prepared for her second cross cultural exhibition in Jordan; "Intuition and Imagination" at the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts; Le Meridien Amman's partner in the global UNLOCK ART programme.
Guests of Le Meridien Amman were invited to the abstract art exhibition as part of the UNLOCK ART programme which entails providing guests with access to contemporary cultural centres around the world, through the Unlock Art pass ...
Researchers at the University of Leeds investigating the genetic causes of bipolar disorder have identified two new drugs – one of which has already been found safe in clinical trials – that may be effective in treating the disorder.
Bipolar disorder is characterised by mood swings between mania and depression. Like autism, it is thought to be a spectrum of disorders and, although its causes are not well understood, it seems to run in families and is thought to be caused by both genetic and environmental factors.
Dr Steve Clapcote, of the Institute of Membrane and ...
Teens who drink more than five cans of non-diet, fizzy soft drinks every week are significantly more likely to behave aggressively, suggests research published online in Injury Prevention. This includes carrying a weapon and perpetrating violence against peers and siblings.
US lawyers have successfully argued in the past that a defendant accused of murder had diminished capacity as a result of switching to a junk food diet, a legal precedent that subsequently became known as the "Twinkie Defense" – a twinkie being a packaged snack cake with a creamy filling.
The researchers ...
