Color Clarifies Gene Regulation in Corn
 |
| Thomas Peterson, left, and Feng Zhang say their work on how genes controlling corn color are regulated show the importance of "control before power" in gene expression. |
Red corn has given Feng Zhang some unusual insights into the molecular control of gene expression in plants – and into corn's role in American folklore.
The corn he studies is derived from Indian corn, which Native Americans believe is a gift from God.
"Only in the dance of the red corn will the children prosper and be happy upon the earth," says one Indian story that Zhang, a doctoral student, found on the Internet.
In a paper published in the March issue of The Plant Cell, Zhang uses red corn to demonstrate how gene expression can be altered by subtle chromosome reorganization.
Working under Thomas Peterson, a professor of genetics, development and cell biology and of agronomy, Zhang focused on two corn lines with red kernels and white cobs, designated rw. Zhang analyzed a gene, designated p1, that controls kernel pigmentation.
"We found a deletion in the regulatory region that determines when a gene is turned on," Feng said. The difference between an rw variety and an rr (red kernels and red cob) or wr (white kernels and red cob) doesn't lie in p1 itself, he said, but in the code regulates the expression of p1.
That shows the importance of gene regulation, said Peterson, who is affiliated with the Laurence H. Baker Center for Bioinformatics and Biological Studies, the Center for Plant Transformation and the Center for Plant Genomics.
"It's like having an orchestra with thousands of instruments," he said. "They need to be regulated or conducted."
