Grasses Using Natural Genetic Mutation by Stealing DNA Gain Evolutionary Advantages

A recent study found that grasses can steal DNA from surrounding plants, resulting in natural genetic mutation that has evolutionary advantages like robust growth. The same process is used by laboratories to create genetically modified crops.

Grasses Stealing DNA

The University of Sheffield's research is the first to demonstrate how frequently lateral gene transfer, or the introduction of DNA from one species into the genome of another, occurs in grasses.

They have an evolutionary advantage thanks to the stolen genetic secrets since they can grow bigger, stronger, and more quickly adapt to new settings.

Human populations that are hybrids adapt more quickly than human populations that have only undergone natural selection and mutation. The EPAS1 gene is among the most prominent examples of how hybridization has benefited people in Eurasia. The gene reduces Tibetans' susceptibility to hypoxia, or the body's tissues losing oxygen at high altitudes.

It's critical to comprehend the rate of lateral gene transfer in order to assess the potential effects it may have on a plant's development and capacity for environmental adaptation.

With 30% of the earth's terrestrial surface covered by grasses, which also produce the bulk of the world's food, they are the most ecologically and commercially significant category of plants.

Gaining Genetic Advantages

The Sheffield team sequenced numerous genomes of a species of tropical grass and calculated the number of genes that were added at various stages of its evolution to provide a rate of accumulation.

These transfers are now believed to happen similarly to how some genetically modified crops are created.

These results could have an impact on how people perceive and use contentious genetically modified crops as well as future efforts to harness the process to increase crop yield and create more resilient crops.

Senior author of the study and Research Fellow at the School of Biosciences at the University of Sheffield, Dr. Luke Dunning, said that there are numerous ways to create genetically altered crops, some of which necessitate heavy human involvement and others that do not. The transfers that have been observed in wild grasses might be facilitated spontaneously by some of these low-intervention strategies.

According to Dunning, these techniques function by introducing DNA from a third specien into the reproductive system. The group's current working theory is that these identical techniques are responsible for the gene transfers documented in wild grasses, and they intend to verify it soon.

Natural Genetic Mutation

Accordingly, contentious genetic modifications might soon be viewed as more of a natural process.

Dunning noted that these "natural" methods of reproductive contamination are currently less effective than those that are used frequently in the production of genetically modified plants, but that by better comprehending how lateral gene transfer takes place in the wild, it might be possible to improve the success of this process.

The rule of common descent for the development of plants and animals has been the foundation of most of the collective understanding of evolution since Darwin. This assumption states that genetic information is transferred from parents to children.

The team's next steps will involve testing their theory by simulating known instances of lateral gene transfer in order to determine whether this ongoing process is a factor in the variations seen between crop varieties.