{"id":1027,"date":"2010-04-17T04:51:58","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T04:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/?p=1027"},"modified":"2010-04-19T04:52:58","modified_gmt":"2010-04-19T04:52:58","slug":"plant-cancer-leads-a-double-life-as-a-tailor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/2010\/04\/17\/plant-cancer-leads-a-double-life-as-a-tailor\/","title":{"rendered":"Plant cancer leads a double life as a tailor"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Allison Younkins<\/p>\n

\u201cCorn Smut\u201d is both a plant cancer and a tailor.\u00a0 This maize fungus does not tailor clothes but it does tailor its genes to attack the host tissue it is infecting.\u00a0 This April, researchers and Stanford unlocked some astonishing secrets about how corn smut manipulates genes in its genome to affect its host more severely.<\/p>\n

The researchers used laboratory techniques such as DNA microarrays, which allowed them to seem which genes in the pathogen\u2019s genome were activated.\u00a0 What they found will inevitably change the way pathologist\u2019s study plant pathogens and human cancers.\u00a0 Their experiment showed that the pathogen had different active genes when it was infecting various parts of the plant including the seedlings or the adult leaves.\u00a0 About 30% of the pathogen\u2019s genome was activated no matter where the infection was located.\u00a0 The activation of the remaining 70% varied depending on the location of the infection.\u00a0 This phenomenon has been overlooked in the past because normally only tissues from one cell type are studied in an experiment.<\/p>\n

These findings may allow scientists to return to pathogens retroactively and discover new information about the mechanism of plant diseases including corn smut.<\/p>\n

This is a significant finding for the plan pathology community but it also has implications for human disorders.\u00a0 Corn smut is a tumor-causing plant cancer, and researchers believe that information from this study could fuel new experiments in cancer research.\u00a0 Their discoveries about this plant cancer suggest that diseases such as cancer can alter their genetic material to better infect a host.\u00a0 If the activated genes can be targeted, this could create more specific treatments and medications for cancer.<\/p>\n

Corn smut has traditionally been overlooked as a research interest because it does not devastate maize crops and is not harmful to humans who eat infected maize.\u00a0 It is common in Mexico for the plant tumors to be used in food and can even be grown intentionally.\u00a0 However, this seemingly unimportant pathogen may hold a wealth of information about how diseases attack their hosts and what we can do to stop them.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A maize tassel infected with corn smut. The tumors are the large white, bulbous growths, some of which have turned yellow or brown. Linda A. Cicero, Stanford University News Service<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Want to hear a Stanford University researcher speak about her research on corn smut? Check out the link below<\/p>\n

Plant Pathogen Tailors Attacks Genetically<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Allison Younkins \u201cCorn Smut\u201d is both a plant cancer and a tailor.\u00a0 This maize fungus does not tailor clothes but it does tailor its genes to attack the host tissue it is infecting.\u00a0 This April, researchers and Stanford unlocked some astonishing secrets about how corn smut manipulates genes in its genome to affect its … Continue reading Plant cancer leads a double life as a tailor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2071"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sciencenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}