Brief Communications Arising

Nature 437, E1 (1 September 2005) | doi:10.1038/nature04062; Published online 31 August 2005

Plant genetics: Hothead healer and extragenomic information

Abed Chaudhury1

Arising from: S. J. Lolle, J. L. Victor, J. M. Young & R. E. Pruitt Nature 434, 505–509 (2005); see also communication from Ray; Lolle et al.reply.

Lolle et al. suggest that non-mendelian inheritance in Arabidopsis thaliana might be attributable to an ancestral RNA-sequence cache1, whereby the RNA genome of previous generations causes a high rate of reversion of the plant's mutant hothead (hth) and erecta (er) genes. Here I describe a 'distributed genome' model that also explains their results, in which mutant hth DNA is restored by homologous sequences present in the genome itself. This model has implications for the generation of diversity without mating.

  1. CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, ACT 2601, Australia

Correspondence to: Abed Chaudhury1 Email: abdul.chaudhury@csiro.au

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.

NEWS AND VIEWS

Genetics Hotheaded healer

Nature News and Views (24 Mar 2005)

Extra navigation

.

SEARCH PUBMED FOR

naturejobs

natureproducts


ADVERTISEMENT