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Dr. Lijia Qu's Group Found a Novel Imprinted Gene NUWA


January 17, 2017: Lijia Qu's group at Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences recently published an online paper on PLoS Genetics titled 'A Novel Imprinted Gene NUWA Controls Mitochondrial Function in Early Seed Development in Arabidopsis'. 

Author Summary

Imprinted genes are only found in mammals and flowering plants, and they express with parent-of-origin-specific patterns. Unlike in mammals, only a few imprinted genes was identified and functionally characterized in plants, and almost all of them encode nuclear proteins. Here, we identified NUWA as a new type of imprinted gene in Arabidopsis. NUWA has maternal-specific expression and controls the early seed development in Arabidopsis, with its encoded protein localizing to and functioning in the maternally inherited mitochondria. The discovery of NUWAreveals a unique mechanism of maternal control of mitochondrial function and adds an extra layer of complexity to nucleus-organelle coordination. It further indicates that, similar to mammals, imprinted genes in plants are also involved in various subcellular biological processes.

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Link for full-text article: http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006553