Corn is a plant which humans have selectively bread for thousands of years. However, if it doesn't adapt to the current changing climate, it may become an 'ancient' grain of modern times. But working out how scientists could aid the rapid development of these adaptations would require a much better understanding of the growth of the plant, both cellularly and genetically.
In order to do this, scientists have been studying baby ears of corn between 1-10 mm long. Xiaosa Xu, leading author of a paper which uses genetic ID tags called barcodes to track development and division of individual cells, described the process like using bricks to build a building, and then being able to identify which room that brick is a part of.
The study has allowed Xu and their colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to create an anatomical map of a developing ear of corn which allows detailed study of when certain genes are expressed in the ear and which genes are specific to a certain cell fate.
I have to say that the story mostly caught my eye because I could immediately imagine the cartoon above, of tiny scientists building up a whole ear (yes it's sweet corn but that's within artistic license I reckon!). But it is fascinating to think that this will allow better understanding of how cell fates are determined in the less studied plant kingdom and the way expression could be adapted by scientists to aid GM foods' ability to sustain the globe despite the changing environmental conditions we face.
This also reminded me of an experience I think I had all but blocked from my mind, but in year 9 I was a member of a focus group looking at the 'youth's opinion' of GM crops. Most of the other members were year 8 I believe, and I was a reasonably accomplished debater by this point so I think I convinced (or frightened!) a lot of the group to change their opinion after our guided conversations. I think they actually had to remove our group from the study as a 'statistical outlier' as instead of the conversation informing any of those who weren't aware of GM crops, they were all converted to my support of them (in a safe way of course!).
Original Article: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. "Building a corn cob; cell by cell, gene by gene." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 January 2021. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/01/210126140052.htm>.
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