Corn Researchers Discover Novel Gene Shut-off Mechanisms
Friday, October 31, 2008 - 10:28
in Biology & Nature
Scientists have identified unusual differences in the natural mechanisms that turn off, or "silence," genes in corn. The discovery, which was made by comparing the impact of inactivating a gene that occurs in both corn and in the much-studied laboratory plant Arabidopsis, provides new insight into how one of the world's most important crops protects itself from mutation-causing mobile DNA elements and viruses.