The Top 5 Plant Genomics Articles of 2018
Posted 26th December 2018 by Jane Williams
It has been an eventful year for plant genomics: we’ve seen advancements in plant disease research, the sequencing of the wheat genome, which was finally achieved through a worldwide collaboration of researchers spanning 13 years, and the ruling on the legal status of gene-edited crops.
As 2018 draws to a close, we thought it was a good time to reflect. Here, we’ve collated our top articles of the year.
Microbiome within Plants, the Rhizophagy cycle and metagenomic discovery strategies
Posted 12th December 2018 by Jane Williams
As a result of revolutionary breakthroughs in recent years, plant research has evolved dramatically. At the 6th Plant Genomics & Gene Editing Congress: USA, the latest NGS, “omic” and gene editing technologies being used for progressing plant based research were examined. If you weren’t able to be there in person, these slides are now available from Sharon Doty, James White & Axel Visel.
Can bacteriophages combat bacterial diseases of plants?
Posted 3rd December 2018 by Jane Williams
The bacterial nature of a plant disease was first proven in 1878–1880 by T. J. Burrill in the University of Illinois when studying fire blight. The number of known species of pathogenic bacteria is in constant change due to the clarification of phylogenetic relatedness upon receipt of new data, but as of 2014 the number of phytopathogenic bacteria genera that unite them was 39 1.
Case Study: High-throughput SNP Screening Downstream of CRISPR/Cas9 Gene Editing
Posted 31st October 2018 by Jane Williams
One of the most powerful applications of genome editing is the introduction of nucleotide substitutions in specific genomic sites. This can be used to mimic single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) or to generate stop codons that yield precise gene knockouts. However, screening hundreds of clones for a single edited nucleotide remains a challenge, especially in the absence of a corresponding phenotype.
Challenges of epigenetic studies in plants: focus on ChIP technique
Posted 26th October 2018 by Jane Williams
Agnieszka Zelisko-Schmidt from Diagenode elaborates on their poster presented at the 6th Plant Genomics & Gene Editing Congress: Europe, explaining how regulatory pathways in plants can be unravelled using the universal plant ChIP-seq kit.
Increasing Shelf Life of Perishable Produce Using Patented Gene Technology
Posted 21st September 2018 by Jane Williams
The eIF‑5A protein is highly conserved in all plants and animals and is the only protein in any organism that has the unique hypusine modification caused by the Deoxyhypusine Synthase (DHS) enzyme. The unmodified-to-hypusinated ratio of these two forms of eIF‑5A determines the fate of the cell. Recent studies suggest that eIF‑5A is mainly involved in RNA metabolism and movement through the cell, thereby regulating cell growth, proliferation, and programmed death. These stable genetic changes will significantly enhance crop traits, including:
An Updated Round-Up of the Top Plant Genome Databases
Posted 29th August 2018 by Jane Williams
There’s more plant genome databases than there ever has been before. We’ve collated the most recent databases for ontology information on a variety of crops, including: rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, barley, millet, rye, and oats.
EU Court of Justice Rules that Gene Edited Organisms will be Regulated as GMOs
Posted 22nd August 2018 by Jane Williams
On 25 July 2018, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the EU’s highest court, issued a decision clarifying whether the EU would regulate products of innovative breeding techniques, like gene editing, under the EU’s Directive 2001/18, the principal EU law governing the regulation of GMOs.