Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you only inherited traits from one parent?  Instead of having your mother’s nose and your father’s smile, you might resemble a clone of one parent, not a mixture between the two; however, without perfection of the cloning process, we do not need to worry about offspring containing only genes from one parent, well, in humans at least.

According to a recent study published in Nature, Arabidopsis thaliana plants can actually eliminate the genes of one parent, resulting in a haploid plant with the only five chromosomes, as opposed to the normal ten chromosomes.  While studying a protein called CENH3 in the Arabidopsis, Simon Chan and Ravi Maruthachalam accidentally discovered that a modified version of this protein might allow for a faster method of producing genetically pure plant lineages.

The location of CENH3 in the centromere of the chromosome makes the protein essential: centromeres are used to pull chromosomes apart during cell division.  In the experiment, Maruthachalam prepared a modified version of CENH3, tagged with a fluorescent protein, when trying to breed a genetically modified Arabidopsis plant with a regular Arabidopsis plant. Maruthachalam expected offspring to contain one mutant gene from the mother and one normal gene from the father, but the plants only had normal genes.  Although he first regarded this outcome as a mistake, a second look at the plants helped Maruthachalam determine that they actually had chromosomes all from the same parent.

Once elimination of half of the chromosomes occurs, the plant will eventually double the remaining chromosomes to obtain the standard number of ten chromosomes per cell.  Without the final process of doubling the chromosomes, the plants with half the number of chromosomes will be sterile.

Plant breeders currently aim to produce homozygous plants that carry the same trait on both chromosomes in order to pass on traits such as pest resistance, fruit flavor, or drought tolerance to offspring; however, to achieve this homogeneity, plants usually have to be inbred for several generations.  With the haploid-inducing method uncovered during this study, breeders would have an instant method of producing genetically pure lines of plants.

Discussion Question: What effect will this method for plant production have on the genetic variance of plant populations?   What effect will this method have on the agricultural industry?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100324142012.htm
Science Abstract: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7288/full/nature08842.html