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ShareAug. 12, 2010 — Scientists have developed new technology that may contribute to the increase of crop yields in agriculture. The technology platform based on "tandem affinity purification" was developed to map the basic machinery of cell division in plants much faster than the existing techniques. The results published in Molecular Systems Biology, were obtained through collaboration with researchers from University of Antwerp.
As a result of the worldwide growing population, the output of agricultural crops has to double by 2050. To address this challenge, the world needs new varieties of plants, with higher yield per hectare than current varieties. "The major driving force behind plant growth is cell division," says Geert De Jaeger, group leader at VIB and Ghent University. "If you understand the machinery that governs this process, you have the key to increase agricultural yield."
Four years and 300 experiments
The research, which took four years and more than 300 experiments to complete, was conducted by Jelle Van Leene and colleagues from De Jaeger's team, together with Erwin Witters of the University of Antwerp. The researchers have now published the complete map of the machinery behind cell division in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. During their experiments, the researchers discovered more than 100 new proteins involved in the process.
TAP: a combination of transgenic technology, protein purification, mass spectrometry and bioinformatics
Many proteins with an essential role in the cell cycle of plants have been revealed by the global sequencing projects of recent years. Until now, little was known about the interactions between these proteins, the actual core of the machinery. The newly developed 'Tandem Affinity Purification (TAP) Platform' allows researchers to quickly unravel the interactions between the proteins involved. TAP requires a multidisciplinary approach, combining transgenic technology, protein purification, mass spectrometry and bioinformatics.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology), via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Jelle Van Leene, Jens Hollunder, Dominique Eeckhout, Geert Persiau, Eveline Van De Slijke, Hilde Stals, Gert Van Isterdael, Aurine Verkest, Sandy Neirynck, Yelle Buffel, Stefanie De Bodt, Steven Maere, Kris Laukens, Anne Pharazyn, Paulo C G Ferreira, Nubia Eloy, Charlotte Renne, Christian Meyer, Jean-Denis Faure, Jens Steinbrenner, Jim Beynon, John C Larkin, Yves Van de Peer, Pierre Hilson, Martin Kuiper, Lieven De Veylder, Harry Van Onckelen, Dirk Inzé, Erwin Witters & Geert De Jaeger. Targeted interactomics reveals a complex core cell cycle machinery in Arabidopsis thaliana. Molecular Systems Biology, August 10, 2010 DOI: 10.1038/msb.2010.53
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
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