Startling Scientists, Plant Fixes Its Flawed Gene
March 25, 2005 | Source: New York Times
In a startling discovery, Purdue University geneticists have found plants that possess a corrected version of a defective gene inherited from both their parents.
The finding implies that some organisms may contain a cryptic backup copy of their genome that bypasses the usual mechanisms of heredity.
Equally surprising, the cryptic genome appears not to be made of DNA, but of RNA, set in motion when the plant is under stress.