US EditionScientists Decode 300-Million-Year-Old DNA Code Hidden in Plant Genomes
Researchers identified 2.3 million conserved plant regulatory DNA sequences across 284 species, revealing a 300-million-year-old genetic blueprint with implications for crop improvement.
- In a new study published in Science, Prof. Idan Efroni, Prof. Zachary Lippman, and Prof. Madelaine E. Bartlett reported that a core portion of the plant regulatory code has been conserved for 300 million years of evolution.
- Genome reshuffling obscured regulatory sequences, so plant scientists used Conservatory, a computational genome-assembly and comparison tool, to recover hidden elements across 284 plant genomes.
- Analysis revealed conserved ordering even as spacing and associations shift, and experimental mutation of conserved non-coding sequences near the HOMEOBOX gene family caused severe developmental abnormalities, showing these elements remain essential today.
- The discovery could reshape agricultural approaches by providing crop breeders and agricultural researchers with a Conservatory atlas as a resource for plant breeding, enabling precision breeding, synthetic biology, and more resilient crops.
- Across 314 plant genomes from 284 species, the atlas shows approximately 2.3 million conserved regulatory sequences, including more than 3,000 predating flowering plants and some over 400 million years old.
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9 Articles
300 million years of hidden genetic instructions shaping plant evolution revealed
A deep genetic mystery has baffled plant scientists for decades. Although leaves, stems, and flowers develop in strikingly similar ways across many plant species, scientists have struggled to identify the shared DNA instructions that guide their formation. A new study now uncovers this hidden regulatory code and shows that its core has been conserved for 300 million years of plant evolution. Remarkably, these ancient DNA sequences were hidden in…
Unlocking the Secrets of Plant Evolution: Ancient DNA Switches Discovered
In a groundbreaking study, scientists have uncovered over 2.3 million conserved non-coding sequences (CNSs) that function as regulatory DNA switches, preserved in plant genomes for more than 400 million years. This research, conducted by teams from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL), Hebrew University, and the Sainsbury Laboratory at Cambridge University, sheds light on the complex mechanisms of gene regulation in plants and opens new avenues …
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