Botanical Student Breaks Code to Discover New Gene

Apr 05, 04:38 AM

Current Headlines: By Fiona McIlwaine Biggins

Most visitors leave the renowned botanical gardens in London with memories of the amazing plants and their scents, but Kingston University student Alastair Muir, who is originally from Ballymena, left having made an exciting discovery which will have important implications for scientists.

The biology graduate, who spent a 12 month workplace placement at Kew during the third year of his degree, uncovered a new 'jumping gene' - in a plant belonging to the lily family.

The findings could help solve questions which have long puzzled scientists, such as why some plant species have considerably more DNA than humans.

The Co Antrim man made the discovery after winning one of Kew's sought after student placements.

He was asked by the experts at Kew to investigate an unusual pattern of DNA fragments which had already been detected by another researcher in the Crown Imperial Fritillary.

Checks suggested that part of this DNA pattern was a fragment of a jumping gene - known in scientific circles as a retrotransposon.

The 27-year-old was charged with taking the small fragment and working out the full code for the jumping gene using a scientific technique known as genome walking.

He explained: "I became more and more intrigued as I went along. It was challenging because I was learning new techniques and using equipment I hadn't used before, but also very rewarding when I finally ironed out the code."

Being the first to discover the jumping gene, Mr Muir also got to name it and chose FiRE (Fritillaria imperialis RetroElement) - taking the Crown Imperial's Latin name.

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