An Unseen Battle: Changes Among Plants

A battle around the world is raging between plants and the changing environment, and UC Davis researchers are on the front lines.

For example, the microbes are constantly creating new types of illnesses, while the plants — sometimes with the help of breeders — are developing new immunities.

It’s something plant geneticist Luca Comai, Ph.D. ’80, a distinguished professor of plant biology, has seen firsthand through his decades of research into plant chromosomes.

“Much of plant breeding is dedicated to keeping plants protected from the continuously evolving pathogens,” Comai said. “You give them a new target — you protect the plant, now you have huge selective pressure for all microbes to figure out a way to overcome that protection. … It’s a battlefield, and new weapons are being developed and aimed across the divide.”

Comai’s current research focuses on the ways plants protect their genomes when growing, and how they send those genomes intact to the next generation. He said one exciting discovery in that area was a finding that the part of the plant devoted to reproduction is also the area with the fewest mutations.

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