As summer nears its end and we proceed into the more pleasant days of autumn, one can’t help but notice the drastic climatic and physical changes that naturally ensue during this transitional period. Perhaps the most inspiring of these changes is so characteristic of autumn that it has led many in modern times to refer to the season simply by this process, that is, fall.

Abscission in plants, or the falling of leaves, petals, flowers, fruit, or other plant organs, is an extremely important physiological process that allows plants to rid themselves of their no longer useful or harmful organs. Because of the immense financial ramifications the timing of abscission can have on the fruit and flower commerce, the ability to control this complex process in plants can have extremely beneficial consequences in terms of profitability for the aforementioned industries. For this reason, researchers at the University of Missouri took it upon themselves to investigate the genetic pathway of abscission in a plant species known as Arabidopsis thaliana. Fortunately, they succeeded in their pursuits and uncovered a sophisticated genetic pathway for a plant that is often used as a model organism by many plant researchers. John Walker, director of the UM interdisciplinary Plant Group at the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Centre, said, ‘Insight into the process of abscission in Arabidopsis thaliana provides a foundation for understanding this fundamental physiological process in other plant species.’

Although plants normally abscise organs in response to such causes as the ripening fruits or an infection in one or many leaves, interestingly, abscission in Arabidopsis thaliana has no such apparent function. Perhaps what is even more intriguing is the fact that according to Walker, the genes that lead to this process in Arabidopsis seem to have been there for a very long time. Although there is much to be learned, research studies like Walker’s continue to make tremendous headway in the field and contribute immensely to our overall understanding of the process of abscission in plants.

Questions for readers:

Given that: 1) Researchers at the University of Missouri discovered that the genes which cause abscission in Arabidopsis thaliana have existed for a long time.  2) Abscission in this plant has no apparent function, what can we deduce given our understanding of evolution?

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