A roadmap for gene regulation in plants

A novel approach to synthetic biology could revolutionize how scientists improve plants for bioenergy and agriculture

 
For the first time, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a genome-scale way to map the regulatory role of transcription factors, proteins that play a key role in gene expression and determining a plant’s physiological traits. Their work reveals unprecedented insights into gene regulatory networks and identifies a new library of DNA parts that can be used to optimize genetic engineering efforts in plants.

“Transcription factors regulate things like how plants grow, how much fruit they produce, and what their root architecture looks like,” said Niklas Hummel, lead author of a study on the research in the journal Cell Systems and a research associate at the Department of Energy’s Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), which is managed by Berkeley Lab. “By deciphering their regulatory role, we can identify new strategies to engineer more drought-resilient bioenergy crops and other plants with improved agronomic traits.”

 
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