The human population
of the earth has been increasing exponentially over the past few hundred years,
a trend which is showing no sign of stopping. But with all these extra mouths
to feed, do we have the resources to actually keep feeding them?
One of the biggest problems that the human race faces at the
moment is the rapid development of global poverty and global hunger, issues
which will only be worsened if the population increases to nine billion, as
predicted. Whilst these are two separate
problems, they can be simultaneously resolved in a long term way through the
promotion of agricultural growth in areas where poverty is particularly rife. However,
communities which experience particularly harsh levels of poverty usually occur
in areas whose land is incapable of sustaining a large number of crops. These
areas therefore require new types of crop species which can grow with a much
lower level of nourishment, whilst still producing the same yield of food.
Therefore, research geared towards producing these new
varieties of plants is of critical importance. The main method which could be
used to produce these variants is through increasing a plants level of genetic
recombination.
Recombination is a molecular process which occurs within the
cells of plants during meiosis, a specialised round of cellular division which
produces gametes, cells with half the usual number of chromosomes (haploids). During
this time, chromosomes which are genetically very similar to each other called
homologues pair together and form cytological structures called chiasmata. When
these chromosomes then resolve during a stage called anaphase, the resultant
chromosomes often contain pieces of genetic information from each of the
chromosomes which originally pair (recombinants). This introduces a level of
genetic variation within a population, which is often the driving force behind
evolution, and the adaptation to different environmental influences.
This process occurs in all sexually reproducing animals.
However, in certain plant species recombination is kept under incredibly strict
control in an attempt to ensure the stability of their genome. Whilst this is a
positive outcome for these plants in their natural environment, when attempting
to produce variants with more resilient phenotypes this produces a difficult
obstacle. It is therefore the aim of many researchers to further understand the
mechanisms which govern recombination, as well as any techniques which could be
adapted to try and artificially induce much higher levels of recombination.
It is this type of research which I am currently involved in
whilst completing my masters at The University of Birmingham, UK. During my
time working in this lab I will be attempting to determine whether okadaic acid,
a phophase 2A inhibitor, is capable of inducing a much higher level of
recombination in Brassica napus between
chromosomes which normally don’t recombine at all.
This type of research is much different to previous research
which has produced genetically modified (GM) crops, which usually involves
placing foreign genes into an organism which would never have been present in
the wild. This type of technique is often poorly favoured by the public at
large, with many suggesting that the repercussions of manipulating nature in
this way could never be fully understood.
However, the research that I am involved in is interested
simply in inducing the expression of genes that were are already present within
the genome, but were never allowed to surface and influence the phenotype. This
is a much more environmentally safe method of producing high yielding plants,
and one which would be a globally accepted resolution to current issues around
poverty and food security.
Could this type of research be the answer to some of the big
questions that we are going to have to face in the near future? Whilst it
certainly has potential, we are still a long way away from being able to
completely know the truth. But don’t worry, I’ll keep you up to date if I ever
find out the answer to my tiny scope of research, and let’s just hope that the
hundreds of other labs around the world do the hard work for us.
What do you think about this research? Comment below with
any thoughts or questions.
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