What plant DNA is on our plate today?
Discover how people create their food
DNA of plants is fascinating and is an essential part of every meal we eat.
The DNA code is composed of a sequence of four different building blocks. Biologists call these building blocks A, T, G and C for short. Together with the environment, the DNA code determines how a plant looks and tastes.
The DNA code in plants is not fixed, but changes over the years. Sometimes subtly with a single letter and sometimes with thousands of letters at once. There are millions of examples wherein changes of DNA letters caused a new trait in a plant species.
Changing the DNA code is also the basis of breeding and the development of new plant varieties in agriculture. Let’s give two concrete examples:
Due to spontaneous changes in DNA, it happens very occasionally that a branch with nectarines appears on a peach tree. Most nectarines found in stores carry an additional gene of nearly 6,000 letters that jumped right into the middle of the DNA coderesponsible for the production of hairs. As a result, the once-hairy 'peach' lost its ability to grow hairs and was transformed into a hairless nectarine.
Due to changes in DNA, a white onion can suddenly emerge from a red onion just like that. In one such case, the white onion was created by the change of a single letter in the DNA. The red onions have an 'A', the white ones a 'T' in a piece of DNA responsible for the production of the red colour.
Intriguing, isn't it? If you’re hungry for more, be sure to check out our book! Through understandable text and vivid illustrations, you'll get more background on how plant DNA changes and its consequences. It will also cover CRISPR and the so-called “genetically modified organisms” or GMOs.
Writing and illustrating is still ongoing. So no concrete release date for now. We'll keep you posted! 🙂
Ruben Vanholme & Dorien Van de Wouwer
