We are all one...

... more than most people think.

We are learning all sorts of interesting things in What a Plant Knows.

One of the plants that biologists study is Arabidopsis.  It is a small prolific plant with a short life cycle, which means it is easy to grow lots of specimens in a hurry, and to have lots of generations quickly.

The Arabidopsis genome was sequenced in 2000.  Someone decided to have a go at seeing what similarities it had with the human genome.

Many human genes have been named because they have an effect on disease processes.  BRCA1 and BRCA2, for example, are connected with breast cancer.  Arabidopsis has BRCA1 and BRCA2.  !!!  It also has genes associated with cystic fibrosis, and with some kinds of hereditary deafness (to name a few of the genes we share which are associated with human disease).

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Of course plants don't have breasts, lungs, or ears.

But the fact that plants share genes with us is evidence that we evolved from the same ancestor.  (I guess this makes perfect sense, but *I* never imagined it!)

The genes we share control basic cell function.  (Again -- perfect sense, but news to me!)  BRCA1 and BRCA2 control DNA repair.  If repair of DNA goes wrong, you can see how that could be Very Bad, in a big hurry.....  CFTR is the gene associated with cystic fibrosis.  It controls ion transfer in cells, which is how cells react to things, and communicate with others.  Again -- if this goes wrong --- Very Bad.

One sort of hereditary deafness is caused by an inability to grow the "hair cells" in our ears which react to vibrations.  Without those cells, we have no way to perceive the vibrations which are most of the sounds we hear.

In plants, the same gene makes "root hairs."  They aren't "hairs" any more than the "hair cells" in our ears are "hairs", but they are critical to plant function -- without them, the plant can't drink.

The gene makes "small, hair-like structures" -- which have completely different functions in mammals and in plants.

Doesn't it just blow your mind that plants have the same genes we have, even though they may use them for other purposes?

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How on earth can we possibly imagine that spraying poisons everywhere, intending to disrupt the lives of plants, or insects, has no effect on us?  When we all share so many of the same genes!?!

I'm betting that we are going to learn that those poisons DO affect us.  We just don't know how.  Yet..............................

How I wish we were more cautious.  How I wish we were less sure that we know plenty enough to meddle in things that we, in fact, understand very little, if at all................

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