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http://abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/2034536.htm?techGene silencers win top prize
Dani CooperABC Science Online
Thursday, 20 September 2007
Silencing the enzyme responsible for red pigment has allowed the development of blue roses (Image: iStockphoto)
Two researchers who made the blue rose possible by uncovering how to silence plant genes are the winners of Australia's Prime Minister's Science Prize.
Dr Peter Waterhouse and Dr Ming-Bo Wang, at CSIRO Plant Industry's Canberra laboratory, made the discovery in 1997 while investigating plant viruses.
They published their findings in 1998 just months after a US team outlined a similar type of gene silencing in animals.
The US scientists went on to win the Nobel Prize.
But the Australian research is finding wider application internationally, having already generated more than 100 patents and more than 2000 laboratories worldwide requesting the technology.
Waterhouse says their initial research was focused on developing better ways to protect crops by understanding how plants protect themselves against viral attacks.
Plant viruses are mostly based on RNA, the molecular cousin to DNA that plays a role in translating genetic information into protein.
When viruses attack plant cells they create a double-stranded RNA as a first step to creating new RNA viruses.
But Waterhouse and his team realised plants were using the double-stranded RNA to fight the invading virus.
The plants would identify and cut up the double-stranded RNA and then attach these pieces of RNA to an enzyme that would then locate the single-stranded RNA of the virus and destroy it.
Dr Ming-Bo Wang and Dr Peter Waterhouse (Image: Bearcage)
Waterhouse and Wang believed that mechanism could be adapted to silence unwelcome genes by tricking the plant into thinking the message sent out by the gene was a virus.
They did this by creating a special structure, known as hairpin RNA, and inserting this, and a part of the targeted gene, back into the plant genetic material.
The technique was a success with the plant recognising the hairpin RNA as an invader and beginning the process of killing off other RNA containing the targeted gene.
"You can protect any plant against any virus and you can virtually switch off any gene," Waterhouse says of their discovery.
The technology is being used to modify cotton oil to make it healthier for human consumption; create biofuels that remain liquid at low temperatures; produce caffeine-free coffee beans; change morphine levels in poppy plants; and even develop a blue rose.
how awesome!!:uhhuh:
