Plants also develop mitochondrial genomic mutations, but they can be repaired and are not passed on to future generations

These diseases can lead to poor growth, muscle weakness, nervous system problems, etc.

In humans and other animals, the mitochondrial genome has an extremely high rate of mutations that are easily passed from mother to child

The biologists at Colorado State University, funded by the National Institutes of Health, seek answers to these questions, but they're not medical researchers — they're plant biologists

How do plants experience mitochondrial mutations?

Amanda Broz, a research scientist in the lab of Dan Sloan, an associate professor in the Department of Biology, led a study recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that revealed how plant mitochondrial genomes mutate, though rarely happen

In previous work, Sloan and his lab members hypothesized that genes responsible for DNA replication, recombination, and repair in plant organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts may be involved in the process

Subsequently, they conducted a more detailed analysis to try to understand how mutations in the mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes spread within and across generations of plants

In contrast, human diseased DNA tends to be mixed with good DNA and passed down from generation to generation because this sorting ability is much

Using a sensitive technique called digital droplet PCR, the researchers tracked

Back to that particular gene: Using the mutant plants they grew in the lab, CSU biologists found that functional copies of MSH1 are responsible for speeding up the process of

Broz said: "One of the cool things about our work is that it illustrates how nature has devised multiple ways to deal with mutations in the genome of organelles

The researchers want to learn more

Journal Reference:

1. Amanda K.