The discovery could shed new light on the evolutionary transition of species from the sea to dry land and revolutionise agriculture.

In this study, the researchers chose as their model plant, which reproduces via sexual reproduction, a moss of the Physcomitrella patens type. However, a gene called Bell1, found in all of the plant's tissues, was used by researchers to make the moss create embryos without using its sexual reproduction systems.

The study indicated that an additional advantage was that this gene is preserved among plant species, and understanding of the mechanism fundamental to the asexual reproduction could pioneer the way to activating a similar process in crop plants. Such a successful process to apply cloning to produce seeds from selected plants could ensure the rapid reproduction of targeted plants, their storage for seeds and distribution to farmers using relatively simple means and at a low cost.

For seed companies this means that the plant's own natural genetic replication is the name of the game in agriculture, as it imparts uniformity and leads to the upgrade and production of superior varieties, which will have the desired properties and right nutritional parameters, such as plants yielding tasty fruit that are resistant to disease, and more.

The researchers believe that the potential is immense as the production of identical seeds enables their long-term preservation and the marketing and distribution of the seeds to farmers easily and cheaply, a fact which could significantly reinforce global food security.

This ongoing research is the result of about ten years' work conducted by two research groups. These groups include one led by Prof. Nir Ohad at the Dept. of Molecular Biology and Ecology of Plants who directs the Manna Center Program for Food Safety and Security at Tel Aviv University. Prof, Ralf Reski who heads the Department of Plant Biotechnology at Freiburg University in Germany leads the second group. These excellent research teams recently published the results of their study in the prestigious journal, ‘Nature Plants’.

Prof. Ohad explained that this significant research began by examining the essential difference between sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction (apomixes). By using and developing the newly discovered Bell1 gene, the researchers enabled the plant to produce the next generation independently without fertilization, thereby bypassing the problems associated with sexual reproduction.

Source: IsraelAgri via HortiBiz