Biology professor Scott Poethig published new research on the molecules which control the juvenile to adult transition in plants. The miR156 molecule is a microRNA that regulates gene expression. Poethig, a developmental biologist, has been studying plant development since he first became fascinated with the subject in graduate school.
In October, Poethig and fellow researcher Aaron Leichty — a former graduate student in Poethig's lab — published research on over 100 Acacia species in Penn's greenhouse. Poethig's investigation involved the plant Arabidopsis, a species in which miR156 plays an important role in the growth of the plant from the juvenile to adult phase.
"We examined this question in the plant genus, Acacia Mill., which contains species that undergo the juvenile-to-adult vegetative transition (vegetative phase change) early in shoot development, as well as species that remain permanently juvenile, or have delayed vegetative phase change," they wrote in the paper's abstract.
"Mapping the timing of vegetative phase change onto a molecular phylogeny of Acacia revealed that permanent juvenility has evolved multiple times and is sometimes associated with a delay in vegetative phase change in related species," the researchers added.
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