Tag: plant genetics

Considering the world’s growing population and less land being available for farming, it’s becoming more important than ever to increase nutritional quality and crop yield of food crops. One way to achieve this is by genetically modifying a plant by introducing a foreign gene (called a transgene) from another organism, essentially giving the plant a new trait not naturally present in its genome.

This often enhances a plant’s resistance to pests, diseases and environmental stresses, improves its nutritional value. Plant’s traits can also be improved by modifying the genes they already have through gene-editing technology.

However, when foreign genes are introduced into target crops using the transgenic approach or by manipulating endogenous gene expression in target crops using genome editing for trait modification, some unneeded DNA may end up permanently residing in the host genomes of the final transgenic products, which raises questions of potential hazards or adverse effects to the host, environment and human health. Professor Hong Luo and his lab have been studying this genome editing in crops.

“The unnecessary DNA that gets into the transgenic plants with the target gene need to be removed,” says professor Hong Luo.

One way to remove them is by using site-specific DNA recombinases. Site-specific recombinases recognize specific DNA sequences by flanking the desirable gene with target sequences that the recombinase can recognize and excise.

Professor Luo has received a $650,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study these unintended consequences of three site-specific DNA recombination systems commonly used to genetically engineer target crops.

In this study, Luo will study three different recombinase genes — Cre, FLP and PhiC31 — in plants creeping bentgrass and Arabidopsis by investigating whether there are unintended off-target effects to host genomes, epigenomes and phenotypes and whether they negatively or positively affect plant traits and present hazards to the environment.

“This will give us an idea about what aspects those recombinases impact in which particular plant species,” he said.

Read more and watch the video in the Clemson News article.

Yellow camellias are far rarer than white, pink and red, found only in south China and Vietnam. Senior biochemistry major Allen Gomez’s research aims to make propagation and growing of yellow camellias easier.

Gomez’s research is done through the Creative Inquiry + Undergraduate Research program with associate professor Dr. Haiying Laing, whose research focuses on the application of genetics and genomics to improve economically important traits in plants.

“I think it’s really interesting how gene editing and being able to modify and improve certain aspects of different organisms through genetics works,” said Gomez.

Working with first-year Ph.D. student Roger Zhang he has investigated the expression levels of auxin response factor (ARF) genes in Camellia nitidissima, aiming to determine how ARF genes were regulated in yellow camellias, possibly leading to the ability to determine a method to induce adventitious roots and develop a treatment method that would improve the rooting ability of yellow camellias.

Gomez’s end goal is to attend medical school and become a surgeon. He says the research he has done through this project gives him valuable research experience to bolster his medical school applications and allows him to hone skills he’ll use throughout his career in medicine.

“It shows that I am able to follow instructions step-by-step, take precise notes, solve problems, work with others, interpret data and know the importance of sterility. I’ll use those skills in medical school and as a surgeon,” he said.

Gomez’s desire to become a surgeon stems from a childhood experience.
When Gomez was 10, he lived in Ecuador. After falling off monkey bars at the playground and breaking his wrist, it was four days before he could get the surgery he needed. That sparked his interest in surgery and a desire to help bring more medical services to rural areas in Ecuador.

“My experiences at Clemson helped solidify my belief that pursuing a medical career is the right thing to do.”