Researchers resurrect extinct gene in plants with major implications for drug development

Northeastern University researchers resurrected an extinct plant gene, turning back the evolutionary clock to pave a path forward for the development and discovery of new drugs.

Specifically, the team, led by Jing-Ke Weng, a professor of chemistry, chemical biology and bioengineering at Northeastern, repaired a defunct gene in the coyote tobacco plant.

In a new paper, they detail their discovery of a previously unknown kind of cyclic peptide, or mini-protein, called nanamin that is easy to bioengineer, making it "a platform with huge potential for drug discovery," Weng says. The paper is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Weng's Institute for Plant-Human Interface previously discovered that cyclic peptides exist in plants, which brought him to coyote tobacco, which is common in the Western United States. As Weng and his team delved into the genetic code of this plant, they discovered a pseudogene that was no longer functional.

This particular gene had previously encoded the cyclic peptide nanamin in coyote tobacco, but over time, due to adaptive mutations, it had faded away into the evolutionary past. But that didn't stop Weng and his team.

They found that this gene still existed in related plant species and, using a new method called molecular gene resurrection, cloned the gene and corrected the mutation..

Image source: Alyssa Stone/Northeastern University.