Writer: Kathleen Davis Phillips, (979) 845-2872, ka-phillips@tamu.edu
Contact: Dr. Andrew H. Paterson, (979) 845-3773, ahp2343@bioch.tamu.edu
(EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Andrew Paterson, 1997 Texas A&M University Faculty Lecturer, will discuss his scientific discoveries linking all flowering plants to a 200-million-year-old common ancestor — and what that could hold for future development of food and fiber crops for the world — April 17 at 11:30 a.m. in Room 101 Heep Center on the campus in College Station. Paterson is the Christine Richardson Professor of Agriculture in the Texas A&M University department of soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University.
COLLEGE STATION — All flowering plants, from the turf under our feet to the crops we eat to the mightiest trees in the forest, are thought to trace back to a single common ancestor which existed as long as 200 million years ago.
That discovery, in labs at Texas A&M University, represents the potential for plant breeders to develop improved plant varieties in dinosaurian proportions — or least make big advances toward feeding and clothing the world.
“Jurassic Farm: Toward the reconstruction of a 200-million-year- old common ancestor of all flowering plants” will be the topic for the 1997 Texas A&M Faculty Lecture by Dr. Andrew H. Paterson, Christine Richardson Professor of Agriculture in the department of soil and crop sciences at Texas A&M University and director of the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory.
The Faculty Lecture, sponsored by the Texas A&M University Lecture Series, is conducted annually to honor a distinguished researcher on campus, according to University Lecture Series chair Dr. William Klemm, professor of veterinary medicine. Paterson was selected from a slate of nominees submitted by each college.
Paterson first reported a link between the worlds major grain crops — rice, corn and sorghum — in 1995. That finding, which traced the common grass ancestor to 65 million years ago, meant scientists were on their way to unlocking the door to genetic engineering of more productive and nutritious crops.
Last December, Paterson reported that all flowering plants derive from a common ancestor from perhaps 200 million years ago. That discovery is significant because flowering plants generally are divided into two classes — grasses (called monocots) and broadleaf (or dicot) plants.
“Down the road, we may be able to treat the genomes of all crops as one,” Paterson said. “If we know the function of a gene in cotton, we will be able to infer what that gene’s function is in grain sorghum.”
Paterson said the results from his lab revealed direct evidence of this ancestor, both in the arrangement of genes along the chromosomes and the functions of specific genes.
In his lecture, Paterson describes the “genetic archaeology,” reaching back through 200 million years of evolution to reveal a “unified molecular map” depicting the arrangement of genes along plant chromosomes, and identifies key genes serving important functions in modern crops and other plants.
“There are many profound consequences of these findings for the biological and medical sciences,” he said. “I want to emphasize expanding the world food supply and overcoming human genetic disorders.”
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