Showcasing colorful mutant heroes, movies like X-Men, Fantastic Four and Guardians have captivated global audiences. Recent high-throughput genetic screening of meiotic transition rate mutants Arabidopsis thaliana It attracted the attention of the academic community by solving a centuries-old mystery in the life sciences.

Prof. from the Department of Life Sciences, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH). Kyuha Choi, Dr. Jayle Kim and Ph.D. A research team consisting of Heejin Kim achieved a remarkable result in discovering the molecular mechanism responsible. cross over. Intervention during meiosis, biological regularity at the chromosome level. The results of this study were published on February 20. Nature PlantsAn international journal in the field of life sciences.

The role of meiosis in genetic diversity

In sexually reproducing organisms, individuals resemble their parents or siblings. It is important to recognize that despite striking similarities, absolute identity remains unattainable. This variation is due to the process of meiosis, which creates reproductive cells such as sperm and eggs in animals or pollen and eggs in plants. Unlike somatic cell division, which replicates and divides the genome evenly, meiosis creates genetically diverse reproductive cells through a mechanism known as crossover.

Meiosis and crossover play an important role in biodiversity and have a significant impact on reproduction, where the best traits are selected and bred into plants. As a rule, most animal and plant species show at least one and at most three crossovers per homologous chromosome pair.

Being able to control the amount of these crosses can lead to breeding crops with certain desirable traits. However, achieving such control was a difficult task due to the “cross interference phenomenon”. Crossover interference, in which one crossover prevents another crossover from occurring next to it along the same chromosome, was first discovered in 1916 by fruit fly geneticist Hermann J. Muller. Despite the persistent efforts of researchers over the century since its discovery, the mechanisms underlying crosstalk have only recently begun to reveal their secrets.

Breakthrough in understanding cross interference

In this study, the team used a high-throughput fluorescent seed scoring method to directly measure migration frequency in Arabidopsis plants. Through genetic screening, they identified a mutant called . hcr3 (high pass frequency3 ) showed an increased migration rate at the genomic level. Further analysis showed that transitions increased hcr3 was associated with a point mutation in the gene J3encoding a co-chaperone associated with the HSP40 protein.

This study demonstrated that a network involving the partner chaperone HCR3/J3/HSP40 and the chaperone HSP70 controls crosstalk and localization by promoting degradation of the pro-crosstalk protein HEI10 ubiquitin E3 ligase. The application of genetic screening approaches to identify crosstalk and inhibitory pathways has successfully solved a centuries-old puzzle in the life sciences.

“Application of this research to agriculture will allow us to accumulate beneficial traits quickly, thus shortening the breeding time,” said POSTECH professor Kyuha Choi. said. Expressing optimism, he said, “We hope that this research will lead to the breeding of new varieties and the identification of beneficial natural variations responsible for desirable traits such as resistance to diseases and environmental stress, increased productivity and high-value production.”