Discovery of 100 million-year-old regions of DNA shows short cut to crop science advances

Scientists have discovered 100 million-year-old regions in the DNA of several plant species which could hold secrets about how specific genes are turned 'on' or 'off'. The findings, which are hoped will accelerate the pace of research into crop science and food security, are detailed by University of Warwick researchers in the journal The Plant Cell. By running a computational analysis of the genomes of the papaya, poplar, Arabidopsis and grape species, scientists have uncovered hundreds of conserved non-coding sequences which are found in the DNA of all four species. These non-coding sequences are not genes, but are located in the promoters upstream of genes and are around 100 DNA base pairs in length. As the four species have evolved separately for around 100 million years, the fact that these regions have been conserved suggests they play an important role in the plants' development and functioning. The team at the University of Warwick believe these regions are involved in controlling the expression of the genes they are upstream of - in other words determining whether the genes are turned 'on' or 'off' according to the environmental conditions or developmental stage of the plant. For example, some genes will be required for defence against pathogens, or others will be required for germination.