Genes Outside the Nucleus Show Disproportionate Effects

Recent research from the University of California, Davis, shows that the genes outside the nucleus has disproportionate effects that involve a tiny proportion of a cell's DNA involving a large effect on a cell's metabolism. The researchers worked with the model plant Aradiposis, which may have implications for future treatments of inherited diseases in humans.

Background information from the study shows that plant and animal cells carry most of their genes on chromosomes in the nucleus that become separated from the rest of the cell. Yet they also contain a small number of genes in organelles that lie outside the nucleus, known as the mitochondria.

The influence of the genes outside the nucleus was known to an earlier generation of field ecologists and crop breaders, according to lead study author Dan Kliebenstein, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences and Genome Center and senior author of the recent story.

Bindu Joseph, a postdoctoral researcher, also studied how variation in 25,000 nuclear genes and 200 organellar genes affected the levels of thousands of individual chemicals or metabolites in leaf tissue from 316 individual Aradiopsis plants.

The results showed that 80 percent of the metabolites measured were directly affected by variation in the organellar genes.

"At first it's surprising, but at another level you almost expect it," Kliebenstein said, via the release. "These organelles produce energy and sugar for cells, so they are very important."

Similar effects also occurred in mammalian cells, according to the study authors.

"From what we can see in plants, there might be an issue, but it needs testing," Kliebenstein said, via the release.

What do you think?