Synthesis a Publication of UC Davis Cancer Center

Building a better vegetable
(continued)

It's a happy coincidence that Arabidopsis, one of the most common research plants in the world, is also high in sufora phane. Scientists around the world sing the praises of this humble weed. It's inexpensive to grow, takes only six weeks to mature ("if it were corn, we'd have to wait at least six months for each generation," notes Abel) and produces lots of seeds for genetic analysis. It also reproduces and responds to disease the same way as many important commercial crops.

What's more, Arabidopsis has a relatively small genome of 20,000 genes, more than 30 percent of which have already been sequenced. Humans, by comparison, are thought to have somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 genes. Scientists expect to have the entire Arabidopsis genome sequenced in the next two years.

Over the coming months Abel's group will screen muta genized Arabidopsis plants for gross alterations in sufora phane production, looking to identify the genes responsible for making this valuable compound. The mutant screen involves testing hundreds and hundreds of leaf extracts of individual plants for their potential to induce phase 2 detoxification enzymes in cultivated mouse liver cells.

Photo right: Post-doctoral research Heidrun Gros studies a cell culture.