By Ratneshwar Thakur
New Delhi: While trying to understand genetics of stress to make tomatoes and other crop plants more productive, Indian researchers have identified a gene that helps tomato plant tackle pathogens as well as heat stress.
Scientists at New Delhi-based National Institute of Plant Genome Research (NIPGR) have deciphered critical role of a single gene – SlDEAD35 – in tomato plant whose expression controls its response to both heat stress and viral infection.
It has been known that RNA helicases, one of the largest gene families that function in almost all aspects of RNA metabolism, play a role in growth, development and stress response of a species. They are present in most of the organisms ranging from bacteria to humans, and plants. However, its role in tomato plant’s response towards environmental stresses is not known.
