New research explores the adaptation strategies of polyploid plants, offering insights for cancer treatment and enhancing crop resilience against environmental challenges.
Whole genome duplication (WGD) occurs across all kingdoms of life. While it is most prevalent in plants, it also takes place in certain highly aggressive cancers. Following WGD, a cell acquires additional sets of genomes and is referred to as polyploid.
Most of our major crops are also polyploid, including, wheat, apples, bananas, oats, strawberries, sugar, and brassicas like broccoli and cauliflower. Polyploidy also occurs in some of the most aggressive gliomas (a brain cancer) and is associated with cancer progression. In general, polyploidy has been associated with robustness (as in crops) and adaptation to the environment (as in cancers that metastasize).
Because polyploids have more genomes to manage, the doubling of these genomes can be a weakness, so it is important to understand what factors stabilize young polyploids and how genome-doubled populations evolve.
In this new study, published in Cell Reports, experts from the University of Nottingham’s School of Life Sciences look at how three successfully polyploid plant species evolved to manage the extra DNA and whether they each did this differently or all the same way.
Research Insights from Polyploids
Professor Levi Yant, who led the study said: “Understanding the range of issues that face polyploids may help us to understand why some succeed while others don’t. We see that successful polyploids overcome specific issues with DNA management and we focus on exactly what their ‘natural solutions’ are.
“In our study, we looked at three instances where species have adapted to ‘polyploid life’ and not only survived, but even thrived. Then we looked at whether they used the same molecular solutions to survive. Surprisingly, they did not.”
The researchers found that the clearest signal of rapid adaptation to the polyploid state came from the CENP-E molecule, which is an exact molecule that other groups recently found to be an Achilles heel for polypoid cancers, and is a promising therapeutic target to kill the cancers. The next clearest signal came from ‘meiosis genes’, which Professor Yant notes are turned on in many cancers, whereas they are turned off in nearly all normal cells.
Implications for Cancer Research and Agriculture
“We discovered signals of rapid adaptation to the WGD state in the same molecular networks, and in the case of CENP-E, the exact molecule that is specifically important to polyploid cancers,” continues Professor Yant.
“This WGD gives cancer a short-term advantage over most therapies, but targeting that exact molecule, CENP-E, specifically kills the polyploid cancer. This is a striking example of evolutionary repetition (or convergence) from completely different directions, but to the same adaptive hurdle. We can now take this model that adapts well to polyploidy and that can inform our thinking about certain types of cancer.”
The findings of the study could impact in better understanding of how certain polyploid cancers, such as gliomas (brain cancers) are able to use polyploidy to progress, and what molecules can be targeted as part of any therapy to ‘kill’ the cancer cells.
More broadly, the study is important evidence that shows that mining evolutionary biology for these natural solutions can inform future therapies. Finally, the study also illustrates different ways in the future that we can better engineer our many polyploid crops to be more resilient to certain cataclysmic events – such as climate change.
Reference: “Kinetochore and ionomic adaptation to whole-genome duplication in Cochlearia shows evolutionary convergence in three autopolyploids” by Sian M. Bray, Tuomas Hämälä, Min Zhou, Silvia Busoms, Sina Fischer, Stuart D. Desjardins, Terezie Mandáková, Chris Moore, Thomas C. Mathers, Laura Cowan, Patrick Monnahan, Jordan Koch, Eva M. Wolf, Martin A. Lysak, Filip Kolar, James D. Higgins, Marcus A. Koch and Levi Yant, 7 August 2024, Cell Reports.
DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114576
The study was funded by the European Research Council, BBSRC, and the Leverhulme Trust.
News
Study Shows Brain Signals Only Matter if They Arrive on Time
Signals are processed only if they reach the brain during brief receptive cycles. This timing mechanism explains how attention filters information and may inform therapies and brain-inspired technologies. It has long been recognized that [...]
Does Space-Time Really Exist?
Is time something that flows — or just an illusion? Exploring space-time as either a fixed “block universe” or a dynamic fabric reveals deeper mysteries about existence, change, and the very nature of reality. [...]
Unlocking hidden soil microbes for new antibiotics
Most bacteria cannot be cultured in the lab-and that's been bad news for medicine. Many of our frontline antibiotics originated from microbes, yet as antibiotic resistance spreads and drug pipelines run dry, the soil [...]
By working together, cells can extend their senses beyond their direct environment
The story of the princess and the pea evokes an image of a highly sensitive young royal woman so refined, she can sense a pea under a stack of mattresses. When it comes to [...]
Overworked Brain Cells May Hold the Key to Parkinson’s
Scientists at Gladstone Institutes uncovered a surprising reason why dopamine-producing neurons, crucial for smooth body movements, die in Parkinson’s disease. In mice, when these neurons were kept overactive for weeks, they began to falter, [...]
Old tires find new life: Rubber particles strengthen superhydrophobic coatings against corrosion
Development of highly robust superhydrophobic anti-corrosion coating using recycled tire rubber particles. Superhydrophobic materials offer a strategy for developing marine anti-corrosion materials due to their low solid-liquid contact area and low surface energy. However, [...]
This implant could soon allow you to read minds
Mind reading: Long a science fiction fantasy, today an increasingly concrete scientific goal. Researchers at Stanford University have succeeded in decoding internal language in real time thanks to a brain implant and artificial intelligence. [...]
A New Weapon Against Cancer: Cold Plasma Destroys Hidden Tumor Cells
Cold plasma penetrates deep into tumors and attacks cancer cells. Short-lived molecules were identified as key drivers. Scientists at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), working with colleagues from Greifswald University Hospital and [...]
This Common Sleep Aid May Also Protect Your Brain From Alzheimer’s
Lemborexant and similar sleep medications show potential for treating tau-related disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. New research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that a commonly used sleep medication can restore normal sleep patterns and [...]
Sugar-Coated Nanoparticles Boost Cancer Drug Efficacy
A team of researchers at the University of Mississippi has discovered that coating cancer treatment carrying nanoparticles in a sugar-like material increases their treatment efficacy. They reported their findings in Advanced Healthcare Materials. Over a tenth of breast [...]
Nanoparticle-Based Vaccine Shows Promise in Fighting Cancer
In a study published in OncoImmunology, researchers from the German Cancer Research Center and Heidelberg University have created a therapeutic vaccine that mobilizes the immune system to target cancer cells. The researchers demonstrated that virus peptides combined [...]
Quantitative imaging method reveals how cells rapidly sort and transport lipids
Lipids are difficult to detect with light microscopy. Using a new chemical labeling strategy, a Dresden-based team led by André Nadler at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) and [...]
Ancient DNA reveals cause of world’s first recorded pandemic
Scientists have confirmed that the Justinian Plague, the world’s first recorded pandemic, was caused by Yersinia pestis, the same bacterium behind the Black Death. Dating back some 1,500 years and long described in historical texts but [...]
“AI Is Not Intelligent at All” – Expert Warns of Worldwide Threat to Human Dignity
Opaque AI systems risk undermining human rights and dignity. Global cooperation is needed to ensure protection. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has changed how people interact, but it also poses a global risk to human [...]
Nanomotors: Where Are They Now?
First introduced in 2004, nanomotors have steadily advanced from a scientific curiosity to a practical technology with wide-ranging applications. This article explores the key developments, recent innovations, and major uses of nanomotors today. A [...]
Study Finds 95% of Tested Beers Contain Toxic “Forever Chemicals”
Researchers found PFAS in 95% of tested beers, with the highest levels linked to contaminated local water sources. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), better known as forever chemicals, are gaining notoriety for their ability [...]
