Searching for genes behind a trait
Wednesday, March 24, 2010 - 14:22
in Biology & Nature
A new study located dozens of genes that may determine key traits such as flowering time and disease resistance in plants. The study of possible causal genes of plant traits breaks new ground for two reasons: the authors studied natural variation of 107 different traits -- a far higher number than in previous studies; and advances in genetic analysis enabled the authors to check the genome for mutations at many more points.