See you at seminar! If you bring a lunch, be sure to include some pineapple to share!
Friday, October 7, 2016
All Your Wanted to Know About Pineapples
Next Friday, 10/14, should be a truly interesting presentation by Dr. Jack Min. Dr. Min is our resident bioinformatics expert and has been highly productive since coming to YSU. He will be talking about his recent work with the pineapple genome - an unusual topic for sure, but one that should bring out your curiosity. Background readings for this chat can be found on the schedule page of this blog. However here is the link to Dr. Min's publication in Nature - a truly notable achievement!
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Dr. Jack min presentation was entirely on pineapple genome and gene. He started by giving a brief background about the origin of pineapples, different products made of pineapples, sequencing of pineapple genome and ultimately the evolution of the CAM photosynthesis which could be used to engineer drought tolerance crops. C3 plants are more efficient under the cool and moist conditions while CAM plants are more efficient under arid conditions(harsh conditions). I was wondering why then transition the C3 to CAM photosynthesis?
ReplyDeleteDr. Min’s work focuses on genome sequencing, and most recently he and 71 other researchers from 6 countries (!) sequenced the pineapple genome. Its relatively small genome is approximately 527 Mb, and because pineapple exhibits obligate CAM photosynthesis, their genome serves a model for studying CAM. If memory serves, pineapple is a grass and is related to such cereals as maize and rice, which serve as outgroup species. Pineapple diverged from cereals approximately 100 million years ago and can be a useful model for studying the evolution of CAM. Stomata are open at night and closed during the day in CAM plants, which prevents abundant water loss. Your question is intriguing, Steficah. By increasing our knowledge of gene expression that facilitates CAM, we can use alternative splicing in order to shift C3 and C4 photosynthesis to CAM photosynthesis, and therefore create drought tolerant crops. High yield crops will be necessary if we are to double crop production by 2050, but we must also be considerate of freshwater usage. Crops that are genetically modified to be drought tolerant is one answer to this dilemma. This would help boost crop production in the face of rising temperatures and the loss of freshwater sources (glacial reduction) resulting from human-caused climate change.
ReplyDeleteI was surprized that pineapples are part of the grass family. It's interesting that it's fruit producing.
ReplyDeleteCAM photosynthesis is a recurrent adaptation. This adaptation helps to prevent excessive water loss (by opening stomata when its dark, and closing stomata when its light) and ultimately helps achieve greater carbon dioxide uptake. This type of photosynthesis is important and efficient during drought or in water-limited/harsh conditions. As Kyle mentioned, this will help increase pineapple production in the future with whatever conditions we will be in.
ReplyDeleteI was quite surprised, too, when Dr. Min said that pineapples are a type of grass. I agree with Aaron. Not only is it interesting that it’s fruit producing, but also the fact that it is the second most important tropical fruit! (with banana being the first).
Just a random question for anyone who knows a foreign language or is international: I know in Lebanese we call pineapples “ananas.” My Arabic, Greek, German, French, and Italian friends call it “ananas,” too. I thought this was really interesting. What do you guys call it? Why do you think in America we call it pineapple?
Word roots and etymology are fascinating. I recall from my time working as a pizza delivery boy that the cooks, whom were latino, called it pina (pronounced pinya). This is purely speculation, but perhaps it is related to Spanish colonization of the Americas... And now I have the song "Do you like pina coladas" stuck in my head!
DeleteApparently the word pineapple in English was first used to describe the reproductive organs of conifer trees. When European explorers found the tropical fruit, they termed them "pineapples" around 1664. I suppose they thought they looked like a pinecone.....
ReplyDeleteOn a separate note, I think the pineapple house in Scotland looks pretty cool, and we should take a vacation.
The Spanish initially brought the pineapple to most regions of the earth under it’s original name in the Tupian languages, nanas. The English originally called it by both names (pineapple [named as Nina mentioned] and ananas), but after a while ananas just kind of faded out and pineapple predominated. It might have something to do with bananas being introduced to England shortly after ananas, in the 17th century right before the colonies started to take off, which probably caused a little confusion. Don’t know if there was this same phonetic confusion or choice of an alternative name in other languages.
ReplyDeleteBecause plants that undergo CAM photosynthesis are found in harsher, arid environments, they actually open their stomata only at night but keep it closed during the day. They are therefore adapted to avoid water loss. Since there is such a distinction of environments between these plants and C3 plants, there will be a difference in mechanisms for keeping water at ideal, homeostatic levels for each type of plant. By looking at the genomes for both CAM and C3 plants, one can learn more about their genomes, such as gene expressions responsible for the mechanisms of maintaining water balance in the plant. One can compare these gene expressions for water balance and the potential phylogenetic relationships between the two types of plants. One can also apply this to water loss in crops throughout the world and could help increase crop production (that would include plants that thrive in other environments, such as C4 plants).
ReplyDeleteCAM photosynthesis is used with plants that grow in arid conditions. These plants keep their stomata closed during the day to prevent water loss and open their stomata at night to allow CO2 to enter. C3 plants on the other hand grow in moderate climates because they have their stomata open during the day and closed at night. If temperatures are too hot, then C3 plants close their stomata during the day which leads to decreased intake of CO2. This causes the overall concentration of CO2 to be decreased and the concentration of O2 in the plant to be increased. When this happens, the plant combines O2 with RuBP (the enzyme responsible for carbon fixation) instead of CO2 and the resulting molecule becomes toxic to the plant and photorespiration occurs. Overall, this is bad for the plant because photosynthesis is decreased since the plant is consuming ATP and producing CO2 instead of glucose. Therefore it would be beneficial to switch from C3 to CAM because this would create drought tolerant crops, like Kyle mentioned, as well as prevent photorespiration from occurring, and overall increase crop production.
ReplyDeleteAs Dr. Min suggested in his talk, the pineapple is of great importance to the global market as well as to the study of genetics. With a 527 Mb genome, it makes it an interesting organism for comparative analysis to other plants such as maize and sorghum. As Aaron posted earlier, I also was unaware of pineapple’s classification as a grass species. As for the transition from a C3 to a CAM plant, CAM plants are much better suited to extremely hot environments, such as the Dole plantation in Hawaii. Evolutionarily it then makes sense that this grass would evolve in such a way in order to survive.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone else has mentioned, CAM plants are much better for the hotter, more arid regions that pineapple are known to grow in. So is definitely more favorable for the pineapple plant.
ReplyDeleteI found Dr. Min's presentation to be really interesting. I had no prior knowledge about the pineapple genome so I found the genome information really fascinating.
CAM photosynthesis is most common in desert plants where water is at a valuable resource. CO2 is taken up only at night and is stored in vacuoles. C3 photosynthesis is the major of the three metabolic pathways for carbon fixation by plants. C3 plants grow in normal temperatures because they take up CO2 at night. It is clear that CAM photosynthesis is the preferred growth method for the pineapple.
ReplyDeleteThe aim of the pineapple project is transitional genetic engineering of C3 to CAM photosynthetic pathway to enable the diverse growth of pineapple worldwide in a way that allows the juicy pineapple plant to thrive under water limited environments. The CAM genes were modified and associated with the regulation of circadian clock genes to give juicy pineapple a desired quality of drought resistant and regulate stomatal mechanism.
ReplyDeleteBecause pineapple have adapted via the CAM photosynthetic pathway, meaning they keep their stomata closed during the day (when most water loss would occur) and only open it during the night, they are resistant to water loss. By possibly genetically modifying other plants that are not adapted for arid climates by introducing pineapple-derived genes, crop yields could increase dramatically. In the face of economic crisis and climate change, any agricultural advancement is desirable. This would allow more areas with very different climates to be able to grow their own crops instead of importing from areas with better suitable climates to certain delicate plants and could in turn decrease the amount of gasoline used transferring crops internationally.
ReplyDeleteBeing able to switch plants from C3 to CAM photosynthesis would allow toleration of droughts or other situations where water is scarce. Understanding the genetic expression as well as regulatory mechanisms involved, would grant us the ability to engineer other types of plants with the genes to utilize this pathway. If successful, this would have a multitude of effects. For example, areas that are prone to drought would have to plant crops accordingly to the predicted weather patterns. However, predictions are intelligent guesses meaning farmers could still lose their crops if the prediction was wrong. This is not only detrimental to the farmer, but also the suppliers to which the farmer sells his crop. Having plants that are engineered to tolerate the low water conditions removes some of this risk. Changing climate can cause some areas, which were once ideal to C3 plants, to become inhospitable requiring different crops to be planted in order to yield food production. This could be devastating to a region that depends on one specific type of crop to satisfy their food requirements. Again, being able to introduce the necessary genes would alleviate this problem. Ultimately, being able to insert CAM related genes into a different crop opens up new opportunities for growth. Areas that were once unusable or become unusable can now be utilized again while unpredictable weather patterns will not have as much of an impact as they once did.
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