Source: Mark 1xbet sports betting , 785-532-5845, mcungere@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Jennifer Tidball, 785-532-0847, jtorline@k-state.edu
Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012
The power of flowers: research sprouts a closer look at sunflower genetics
MANHATTAN -- A Kansas State University researcher's plant genetic work is rooted in the sunflower state.
Mark 1xbet sports betting , associate professor of biology, has two major research projects that involve evolutionary change in sunflowers, the state flower of Kansas.
"What we do in the lab is referred to as ecological or evolutionary genetics," Ungerer said. "We study naturally occurring 1xbet sports betting and try to understand the genetic basis or genetic underpinnings of natural variation."
There are more than 50 1xbet sports betting of sunflowers. Some are annual plants -- meaning they germinate, flower and die in one year -- and some are perennial plants that grow and bloom every year and live longer.
Ungerer's first project focuses on five 1xbet sports betting of annual sunflowers: two parent 1xbet sports betting and three hybrid derivative 1xbet sports betting . All three hybrid 1xbet sports betting arose from ancient hybridization events between the same two parents -- an unusual way for new 1xbet sports betting to develop, Ungerer said.
"What also makes the system unique is that the hybrid 1xbet sports betting are recently derived in the last half a million years," Ungerer said. "It seems like a long time, but that is actually pretty recent in evolutionary terms."
But there is another interesting aspect of the three hybrid 1xbet sports betting : While they have the same number of chromosomes as the two parent 1xbet sports betting , the hybrid 1xbet sports betting ' genomes are 50 to 75 percent larger in terms of the amount of DNA.
Ungerer's research team made an important discovery that explains this DNA difference. The researchers studied long terminal repeat, or LTR, retrotransposons, which are mobile genetic elements that can copy themselves and insert the copies into various chromosome locations. Ungerer's team discovered that the hybrid 1xbet sports betting and the parent 1xbet sports betting were different because of massive proliferation events, or rapid reproduction, of the LTR retrotransposons. Not only that, these transposable elements are still active and cause mutations in sunflowers.
"It's like a smoking gun," 1xbet sports betting . "It helps us study the process."
The researchers now want to know the triggers of these proliferation events and how the 1xbet sports betting have reacted to this increase in genome size. Ungerer has received 0,000 from the National Science Foundation to study these rapid proliferation events and how they affect the evolution of the hybrid sunflowers.
"Although virtually all plants and animals have these types of sequences in their genomes, we still know very little about what phenomena cause them to amplify and make extra copies of themselves," 1xbet sports betting .
Ungerer is studying two naturally occurring phenomena -- hybridization and stress -- that are hypothesized to cause proliferation of these mobile DNA sequences. The group of five annual sunflowers provides an excellent system to study the roles of hybridization and stress because not only have the three hybrid 1xbet sports betting arisen from ancient hybridization events, but they also are locally adapted to harsh and stressful environments, unlike their parental 1xbet sports betting . Two of the hybrid 1xbet sports betting grow in the desert and the third hybrid 1xbet sports betting grows in salt marshes, Ungerer said.
Ungerer's second project looks at clinal variation of a perennial sunflower 1xbet sports betting . This 1xbet sports betting has a wide geographic distribution across central North America and grows in areas from Texas north to Manitoba, Canada. Ungerer wants to understand population differences between sunflowers in different parts of the region.
For this research, 1xbet sports betting 's team is conducting common garden experiments, which involve gathering seeds from each of the populations across central North America. The Kansas seeds came from the Konza Prairie Biological Station. The seeds are then grown in the same common garden at Kansas State University.
"If you see differences among plants in a common garden experiment, you attribute that to genetic differences of populations at these different locations," 1xbet sports betting . "We have found striking differences."
Some of these striking differences include germination and flowering time. For example, because the growing season in Manitoba is much shorter, sunflowers grow quickly and flower in about two months. In Texas, where the growing season is much longer, sunflowers grow much slower and the plants grow much larger before they flower in about seven months.
"Now we are trying to expand this research to look at some of the underlying genetics of these differences," 1xbet sports betting .
His second project has been funded by the K-State Integrated Genomic Facility and the Division of Biology's Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.
In addition to his sunflower work, Ungerer has several ongoing research projects. He is studying freezing tolerance of Arabidopsis thaliana, a model plant 1xbet sports betting , across several geographic regions. He is also working with other K-State biology researchers to study mating patterns of the bison herd on Konza.
