An unusual strain of plant that never flowers has enabled scientists to isolate a gene that is essential for the formation of the branches on which flowers form.
Writing in Nature Communications today, Tuesday 24 April, an international team of scientists which includes Professor Noel Ellis from Aberystwyth University, outline how they studied a mutant pea plant, Pisum sativum, to identify the gene that leads to formation of flowering branches on plants.
By comparing it with flowering plants, the researchers were able, after many years of painstaking research, to identify a gene that controls the development of these branches on plants.
Professor Ellis from the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) at Aberystwyth is an expert on legumes – plants such as peas and clover.
He believes this work puts in place the methods, principles and expertise needed to use genetics for the development of more productive and environmentally beneficial legumes.
Professor Ellis explained; “The number and distribution of flowers on a plant is an important part of its survival strategy, here we have a key to understanding this for legumes. This discovery leads us to some possible ways to look for variation in the number and distribution of flowers on legume crops and this could have an impact, for better or worse, on crop productivity.”
The original research was the joint effort of one of the Spanish and Australian authors studying the plants that grew normally but never flowered. They believed that they would be able to identify the gene for flowering.
However, they were faced with a major hurdle. They only had one example that didn’t flower, and no good science is based on one observation.
Many years later, the team were able to disprove their original hypothesis and identify a second gene nearby which was required for the development of these branches on the flowering plants.
