Chloroplasts are where plant cells perform photosynthesis and wheat, like many other plants, inherits chloroplasts only from the mother through small precursors called plastids.
But how this happened was unknown – why didn’t the male’s chloroplast DNA travel with the rest in sperm?
By tagging plastids in wheat with a protein that glowed green scientists at Rothamsted Research and the University of Manchester could watch them in developing pollen grains. They saw for the first time that plastids are degraded in sperm cells just before fertilisation, meaning only plastids from the mother plant are inherited by the offspring.
In the image above the top line shows the protein attached to the plastids in wheat pollen, in the bottom row it is untargeted.
The finding could be used to help breed better strains of wheat, one of the world’s most important and valuable crops.
Salud! Today is my mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! We celebrated in style at the Monte Coxala Spa!! It is truly magical, a slice of heaven. Worth it! My mom and dad are visiting and it has beem such a pure joy and delight. Such loving wonderful people! My heart is full! We had friends over yesterday and celebrated both our birthdays! Mine was Saturday I live in Mexico and sometimes you forget how nice it is to be with your family!! Say I love you, hug one another and have fun together. Namaste friends. . . . . . . . . #spaday #namaste #heaven #fullheart #birthday #mexico #montecoxala #tearsofjoy #happybirthday #happymoments #artisticveganfam #chlorophyll #chlorophyllwater #salud #cheers #treatyoself #selfcare https://www.instagram.com/p/B9idBS9j3S4/?igshid=g6xx8ah5fk5m
Forget the soda pop! Have a chlorophyll-pop instead! Juice of one organic lime, dash of stevia, mineral water and chlorophyll! #goodsoda #chlorophyll #lime #green #vegan #rawvegan #healthyeating
When you have to go to @sprytraining in the morning and you’re hoping this dinner will cancel out the 12 sweetsops and the mango guava paste plus all the other nonsense that you’ve consumed for the weekend