The discovery may have implications for enhancing the growth of important crop plants and might even provide an alternative of sorts for research into human stem cells.
The finding, reported in the current issue of the journal Science, linked the TMM gene in Arabidopsis plants to the formation and distribution of stomatal cells on the surfaces of leaves.
Arabidopsis thaliana is for botanists what fruit flies are for animal geneticists. It is one of the most important - and best understood - models for scientific study. While this common mustard plant has little economic value, it is widely used to better understand the processes governing plant growth.
Fred Sack, a professor of plant biology at Ohio State University, and Jeanette Nadeau, a postdoctoral fellow in the same department, spent several two years trying to understand how the TMM gene altered the number and arrangement of stomatal cells on leaves. Now they have discovered that TMM is only the second known gene to be involved in stomatal development in plants.
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Contact: Fred Sack
sack.1@osu.edu
614-292-0896
Ohio State University
31-May-2002