Releasing a Stem Cell 'Brake' Leads to Much Higher Yields (IMAGE)

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Releasing a Stem Cell 'Brake' Leads to Much Higher Yields

Caption

David Jackson and colleagues have discovered that gently releasing a brake on stem cell proliferation in maize (and other plants) leads to slightly more stem cells and increases in yield up to 50%. The two maize varieties on the left combine to produce a high-yielding hybrid, center (B73/W22); hybrids grown from "weak alleles" of the fea3 gene yield ears with significantly higher yields (the two ears on the right).

Credit

Jackson Laboratory, CSHL

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