Apr. 3, 2010 New information about early Native Americans'
horticultural practices comes not from hieroglyphs or other
artifacts, but from a suite of four gene duplicates found in
wild and domesticated sunflowers. In an upcoming issue of
Current Biology, Indiana University Bloomington biologists
present the first concrete evidence for how gene duplications
can lead to functional diversity in organisms. In this case, the
scientists learned how duplications of a gene called FLOWERING
LOCUS T, or FT, could have evolved and interacted to prolong a
flower's time to grow. A longer flower growth period means a
bigger sunflower -- presumably an attribute of great value to
the plant's first breeders. "Our paper shows how gene
duplication creates potential for evolutionary innovation not
just through creating new gene content but also through new
interactions among duplicates," said Ben Blackman, the report's
lead author. Blackman conducted the research as an IU
Bloomington Ph.D. student. He is now a postdoctoral fello