In collaboration with Tottori University, Naoki Wada, a specially appointed assistant professor at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, succeeded in partial cell fusion between humans and plants for the first time in the world.It is expected that the basic principles of life preserved through evolution will be elucidated and that useful organisms will be bred.
Plants and animals diverged from a common ancestor about 16 billion years ago and have evolved independently, but it was unclear what functions and to what extent each other's functions were preserved.In order to elucidate this, attempts have been made for 40 years to produce fusion cells with both human and plant chromosomes, but in fact, there have been no reports of successful production of proliferative fusion cells.
The research group repeatedly investigated the conditions and methods for fusing cells derived from Arabidopsis (Brassicaceae) with human cells, and succeeded in partially acquiring fusion cells between humans and plants.Human / plant chromosomes with plant chromosomal regions were observed in this fusion cell, in which all human chromosomes were maintained and appeared to have a cellular environment similar to that of human cells.Further culturing caused structural changes in human / plant chromosomes, resulting in independent chromosomes with only plant DNA.Since this plant chromosome is stably maintained, it is considered that the mechanism for maintaining the human chromosome also works on the plant chromosome.In addition, as a result of analysis, it was confirmed that various maintained plant genes are expressed in fusion cells.This means that the mechanism of gene expression is conserved between humans and plants.
The human-plant fusion cells developed this time are said to contribute to the elucidation of the basic principles of life, as to what properties the organisms have followed a long evolutionary path.In addition, it is expected to accelerate the breeding of organisms useful for human beings by introducing heterologous genomes and chromosomes.
