The American scientists released the data to a public gene bank, and it can be used by researchers from all over the world who want to improve corn - for food or energy needs
Scientists at several universities and commercial companies are about to complete a Sisyphean but profitable endeavor - the effort to reinvent the corn plant. A group of researchers led by Richard Wilson from Washington University in St. Louis, mapped the genome of the edible plant and put all the results of the research on the Internet.
This is an achievement that could enable the acceleration of efforts to improve the variety of corn species to meet the increase in the demand for food for humans and animals and for fuel.
Corn forms the basis of a variety of products ranging from breakfast cereals, processed meat and dairy products to toothpastes, shoe polishes and ethanol - which is used as fuel for cars.
The announcement of the completion of the draft corn genome is expected tomorrow, Thursday, February 28, by Prof. Wilson, director of the University's Genome Center, at the XNUMXth Annual Maize Genetics Conference in Washington, DC.
"This is the first glimpse into the master plan of the corn plant," says Wilson. "The scientists will be able to accurately and efficiently dig into the corn genome to find ways to improve the corn's ability to reproduce and thus increase the plant's yield and its resistance to drought and disease.
The project, which costs 29.5 million dollars, began in 2005 and was funded by the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy. "Corn is one of the most important crops for the United States," said NSF Director Arden Bement. "The completion of the maize genome sequence signifies a significant scientific advance that will accelerate the growth of agricultural communities and the economy as a whole."
The data collected in a joint work in which scientists from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Cole Spring Harbor Laboratories in New York and Iowa State University took part, have already made the sequences accessible and deposited them in Gene Bank - GenBank - a public and online database of DNA. The genetic data will also be available at maizesequence.org.
The draft includes 95% of the maize genome and the scientists will work for another year to refine and complete the sequence. "Although a few pieces are missing, we can already benefit from the draft," explains Wilson. "Almost all the important information is already there, and we don't expect any dramatic changes."
The tested sequence is of a strain called B73 developed years ago by the University of Iowa, and known for its high yield and massive use both in commercial crops and in research laboratories. "The genome will serve as a key tool for researchers working to improve corn varieties as well as other grains including rice, wheat and barley. It will be possible to search for genes that increase the nutritional value of corn or optimize the production of ethanol, for example.
For information on the University of Washington website
More on the subject on the science website
16 תגובות
Good point.
No, I'm not sure. I remember this development from a lecture in the plant physiology course at the Technion, but there was no mention of the salt concentration in the water. Most likely it is really brackish water, and not real sea water.
Since a large part of the groundwater in the Negev is brackish, this invention can still serve a real need.
Cezana, are you sure this is sea water and not brackish water?
It was already done on the tomato plant, at the Technion.
Listen, it's a really good idea, for example, to take genes that allow the mangrove trees that grow on the beaches to live from salt water, and attach them to food plants. A good idea. Successfully.
Sabdarmish Yehuda
We need to change the genes of all our types of food so that they can be irrigated with sea water and this would really be an improvement for all desert countries like Israel, except for those that do not have access to the sea...
It is true, nature gives the non-deterministic solutions, and with fantastic speed, but it is possible that parts of the DNA had to be in place in order to perform some action, and above all the very theoretical conclusion that such a system must have 4 bases - after all, a computer "requires" only 2.. (the opposite DNA strand is missing meaning for obvious symmetry reasons..)
H First... the DNA is the result of "much more sophisticated" software, but nevertheless contains only 2 lines of code:
* Make random changes to the code.
* Run the code.
There is no problem in making software that symbolizes this rule. The problem is that the natural computer (physical laws) calculates at infinite speed. and therefore can handle many more particles (the number of atoms on the surface of the earth) without any problem.
While today's computer processes at a speed of several terahertz in total, it will hardly grind one terabyte per second.
Point, well done for this knowledge.. I'm a little kid..
But say, you don't try to check theoretically in computer science or mathematics to check what set of rules and logic are required to produce code so that "the compiler compiles each code, the builder results……." ??? And maybe it will turn out that such a set of rules will require, for example, at least 4 letters (like DNA).
And maybe everything is already falling because of the "stopping problem" that is NPC...?!?!?
It just seems to me that there is room for some theoretical development regarding why DNA behaves in certain ways.
And good luck.
to H first,
DNA is like a computer program only with the following negligible differences, that bugs are irrelevant, the compiler compiles any code, the builder is a result of the code, and the linker is part of the code.
My father, the cool commenter is right -
The first major problem on the way to deciphering the DNA is finding the entire genetic sequence for a certain species.
Finding the genetic sequence itself (AAAATGGGCCCCC...) is called mapping. The process includes special equipment for reading the genetic markers (which are microscopic...).
In fact, decoding DNA is something that they know how to do in a very partial way - for example, there are genetic diseases in humans that we still don't know which "C" or "G" or "T" or "A" causes them and through which mechanism, and this despite the mapping of the human genome (New Man -Yorkey by the way) completed.
On a personal note, I feel that DNA is indeed a code, like the code of a computer program, only that we are required to reverse engineer it in order to understand what the commands, parameters, grammar, contexts are.. the whole language.
I was convinced that they were talking about decoding the genome. I will check with the experts tomorrow. If it helps I am willing to vary to write sometimes mapping and sometimes decoding.
point,
Indeed...indeed...the "standard" term is mapping, Avi Blizovsky was supposed to write in the title "maize's genome mapped".
charles,
what's your thing Enter Nena's chat if you want to write nonsense!
Decoder?? Since when is being able to read a cipher called deciphering?
I heard that the decoding of the genome of stupidity will soon be released for publication.
God forbid, friends, this is a pedophile with corn!! God damn it, this man is walking free and the world is silent
pay attention
This is only about one variety of corn and even in it only about 95 percent of the genes have been decoded.
What happened, why didn't they wait for publication until the final decipherment? Did they want to get ahead of other research groups in publishing?
Sabdarmish Yehuda