This article was originally posted October 13, 2018.
f you want to see the scientific article, you can find it at this link here.
For scientists and everyone else, here’s a short version of what we found:
1. What did we figure out?
What some genes do in corn! Genes are just code to make proteins in living things. These proteins are little machines that do cool stuff – some proteins make chemicals that can do things for plants. We looked at two genes in corn called ZmCPS3 and ZmCPS4 to figure out what their proteins do in corn. We found they make new chemicals that we didn’t know corn could even make!
2. How did we discover that?
We used “synthetic biology”! We knew the letters in the code of these genes, and so we put this code into E. coli. This isn’t the E. coli that makes you sick, but it is similar! We can put our genes into E. coli and see what chemicals the gene-coded proteins make. This process of genetic engineering, taking genes from one living thing and putting them in another to make stuff, is called “synthetic biology”. Have no fear, this E. coli never leaves the lab.
3. What do these new molecules do?
We aren’t sure yet, but we have some clues! We haven’t found these molecules made by ZmCPS3 and ZmCPS4 in corn plants yet, but now we know how to look for them. We did find that corn plants “turn on” the ZmCPS4 gene (the plant tells the gene to start making protein) under heavy metal stress, so the molecules may be important for how the plant survives when it is faced with toxic levels of metal. We need to do more research to figure out if the molecules are in the plant, and if they really help the plant when it’s stressed out!
4. Why does this discovery matter?
This helps us make better plants! If we can understand how plants make their own medicines for when they are stressed out, we can breed or engineer both corn and other plant species to be healthier. If a plant can produce its own defensive medicines, we don’t need to add as many herbicides and pesticides. For example, knowing that ZmCPS4 might be important to metal stress can help us figure out how plants deal with heavy metal in the soil. Understanding the basic concepts by how plant life works will help us breed, engineer, and manage plants to make more food!
