b'Why Should You Celebrate DNA Day?DNA Day comes every April 25how have you celebrated? Ally RodenTHE DISCOVERY OF DNAhascharacteristics in peas, including plant enabled everything from agriculture toheight, seed color and whether the seeds pharmaceutical advancements, makingwere wrinkly or smooth. Through his work the material an intricate part of present- on pea plants, he discovered the funda-day innovations. mental laws of inheritance.Scientific and technological advancesHe deduced that genes come in pairs have paved the way for extraordinaryand are inherited as distinct units, one progress in genetics, and to commemo- from each parent. Mendel tracked the rate the magnitude of these discoveries,segregation of parental genes and their National DNA Day is honored every yearappearance in the offspring as dominant on April 25. or recessive traits. He recognized the National DNA Day celebrates the com- mathematical patterns of inheritance from pletion of the Human Genome Project andone generation to the next.the breaking discovery of the double helix,It was through Mendels insights that according to the National Human Genomescientists were able to greatly expand Research Institute (NIH). our understanding of the complexities of In case of agriculture, DNA has ena- genetic inheritance. That understanding bled discoveries in plant and animal sci- led to the development of new experi-ences that might not have been possiblemental methods, more efficient plant before-and these technologies becamebreeding and much better plant varieties.available along with completing theWith this and other discoveries, plant Human Genome Project in early 2000.breeders all around the world will con-Dick Roelofs, Program Scientist and Teamtinue to develop higher yielding Leader of the DNA Innovations team atplant varieties, with better KeyGene, gives credit to DNA for speed- resistances to pests ing up the breeding process and bringingand diseases, higher better crops to the market. nutritional content, So, whereas before, when DNA infor- drought tolerance and mation was hardly available, the time tomuch more.get to market for a new crop was tremen-dous. I mean, 10 to 15 years was kind ofWhats the Future of common. Now, you see crops becomingDNA Research?available on the market as fast as withinAccording to Roelofs, a five years. We should put that on thehuge next step for DNA account of DNA and using DNA tools inresearch is to understand plant breeding, says Roelofs. variation in the entire set of genes for a specific Where it All Began crop.DNA was first discovered in 1869 by SwissWe always thought researcher Friedrich Miescher. that if we had information Gregor Mendel then spearheaded DNAon one genome, we would in plants with his experiments on peasknow everything about one from 1856-1863. single crop. Well, that is, of The father of genetics looked at sevencourse, not the truth. Right 66/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2022'