Plants grow day by day during summer, but stop growing in the wintertime. During this time, they can look so dried up that they even seem dead. Also, they grow during the day but do not grow during the night. What controls the bio-rhythm of plants? Recently the answer to this question was discovered by an SNU research team.

This team has discovered the key to controlling the biorhythm of plants on the genetic level. This technology can be used to grow plants which can adapt better to difficult conditions such as low temperatures and harsh climates.

Professor PARK Chung-mo’s research team from the Department of Chemistry at SNU’s College of Natural Sciences has announced that they have unraveled the mystery of how genes control themselves by selective gene recombination.

According to Professor Park, when genes are subjected to unexpected circumstances while they are producing protein, they produce another kind of protein which suppresses the gene’s original character. Plants which thrive in warm temperatures produce protein which absorbs energy in order to combat cold temperatures when the weather later gets cold.

The research team studied the mouse-ear cress, a plant with a two-year life span. The transcription factor DNA of the mouse-ear cress produces protein from gene IDD14, and the research team discovered that the protein it produces differs according to the temperature the plant is in. While the gene IDD14 usually produced protein to help the sugar metabolism of the mouse-ear cress, it increased the production of other proteins which suppress sugar metabolism when subjected to cold climates.

Professor Park expects that the research team will be able to develop new plants which fare better in harsh climates. The results of their research were published in the May 2011 issue of Nature Communications.

Written by LEE Hee Un, SNU English Editor, heeun0221@hotmail.com
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor