Genes Help Grow: How Insects Grow on Plants – Knowledge

Viruses and bacteria can do this, and some moths do, but above all insects: they make plants allow tissues to reproduce and thus create small spaces to protect the offspring. It has now been investigated how they were able to induce plants to form such tannins in the case of a type of mite.

They have identified a group of genes that are activated in insects’ salivary glands and lead to the formation of bile, they report in the specialized journal “Current Biology”. One of the genes determines whether bile is red or green.

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There is an almost inexhaustible group of plant globes: small and large, round and elongated, some even resemble a flower. Plant insects are complex structures that provide protection to animals from changing environmental conditions and predators It also ensures access to foods like vegetable juicesThe researchers also wrote about David Stern of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in their article.

Each type of bile-forming insect appears to produce a different bile, even when related species of insect attack the same plant. How exactly they succeeded in doing this “appears to be one of the biggest unresolved problems in biology,” Stern says in a press release issued by the institute. “How does the kingdom being control that The genome of an organism in another kingdomTo completely reorganize its development and create a home for you? “

Genetic variants determine the color of the balls

In order to get closer to the answer to this question, the researchers examined the bitterness-forming Stern insects of the virgin witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), a shrub that grows in North America.

They first identified a gene in insects that is, in one variant, responsible for the formation of green globules and in another variant for the formation of red globules. next one They collected more aphids from the species – But it is the birch trees that live on in the summer without forming moths. Then they compared the genetic activity in the salivary glands of the stinging and non-irritating lice.

They came across a number of genes that were only found in gallbladder-forming insects. Researchers write that proteins produced by genes enter plant cells with sucking lice saliva, where they reprogram the formation of tissues. In this way, instead of the normal plant tissues, jaundice grows. “After years of questioning what’s going on, it’s so rewarding to be able to show something,” says Stern. (Dpa)