Sometimes More Is Too Much (IMAGE)
Caption
Left: A typical wild tomato plant. Note the simple branches (inflorescences) that lead to several flowers each; and the jointed stem (green asterisk in inset) where the fruit is attached to the branch. Right: mutations in genes that regulate plant architecture result in many more flowers, due to the many branching events marked by red arrowheads. Note in the inset that the stem attaching the fruit to the plant is jointless. To breeders, the former trait is highly undesirable; the latter is desirable. By tweaking gene dosages, Lippman's CSHL team has figured out a way to keep jointless while inducing weak branching -- a sweet spot capturing untapped yield.
Credit
Lippman Lab, CSHL
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