I got some exciting news on the weekend. I have been offered a rural scholar ship at Griffith gold coast ^_^ which was my first preference. I'm quite pleased but not have 101 little practical details to work out.
For this weeks discussion topic I wasn't particularly clear on what direction we were taking the "structure, property, function relationships" topic (although our discussions often seem to choose their own direction on the day anyway :P). I cant remember if we were thinking proteins in particular or anything that fits under that heading such as cell shape and structure and their specific function.
Either way the paper I have chosen for for this week is on a protein which is a transcription inhibitor in barley but its general structure is found in many plants. Its expression in barley results in inhibition of growth of two side seed spikes which apparently makes self seeding of the plant more successfull. If this gene is removed however crop yield is tripled but the head are fatter and well likely to successfully self seed. This high yield barley is not a new thing and has been found to be used around the world in different cultures, most of which discovered it by selective breeding.
Congratulations!!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't sure either - some of us have some definite ideas on what we didn't want to discuss and I can't remember what we all did want to talk about, so my plan was 'bring things and see what everyone else wants to do'.
I'm sure your talk will prompt some discussion of its own, as well...
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteDoes your paper have a title or anything? It would be useful to the discussion if the rest of us could have a quick glance at it before the session, that way we're in a better position to actually contribute something to the discussion.