近日，一項刊登於國際雜誌eLife上的研究論文中，來自加州大學戴維斯分校（UC Davis）的研究人員通過研究發現，植物體內或許也會出現像某些人類癌症和發育障礙所引發的“染色體破碎”現象，目前研究者僅在動物細胞中發現存在“染色體破碎”的現象，而本文研究中研究人員卻發現在植物中也存在這樣的現象。

　　本文研究發現或可應用於植物育種中來幫助開發僅遺傳親本一方遺傳物質的單倍體植物，研究者Ek Han Tan博士表示，盡管攜帶染色體破碎的植物並不會患癌症，但對其進行研究或可幫助癌症研究者來利用擬南芥屬植物作為模型來研究癌症發展過程中染色體的行為變化等研究領域。

　　染色體破碎包括將染色體切割成為明顯的隨機片層，同時再以一種雜亂的方式進行組裝，在這一過程中往往會導致某些染色體片層缺失或者順序位置錯亂；一般來說染色體破碎並不是一件好事兒，在人類機體染色體破碎會對機體帶來災難性的損傷。

　　最後Luca Comai教授說道，我們目前正在對著絲粒進行研究，著絲粒可以控製染色體的運動，並且在細胞分裂的過程中將母細胞分成兩個子代細胞；文章中我們發現，當攜帶較弱功能著絲粒的擬南芥模型突變體和攜帶正常著絲粒的植物進行交叉時，其所產生的胚芽都會遭受染色體破碎，進而影響後代雜交植物的生長；後期研究人員將通過更為深入的研究闡明植物中發生染色體破碎的分子機製，並利用這種機製來改善當前的植物育種方式。

　　doi:10.7554/eLife.06516

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　　Catastrophic chromosomal restructuring during genome elimination in plants

　　Ek Han Tan, Isabelle M Henry, Maruthachalam Ravi, Keith R Bradnam, Terezie Mandakova, Mohan PA Marimuthu, Ian Korf, Martin A Lysak, Luca Comai, Simon WL Chan.

　　The process could be applied in plant breeding as a way to create haploid plants with genetic material from only one parent, said Ek Han Tan, a postdoctoral researcher in the UC Davis Department of Plant Biology and first author on the paper. Although plants don't get cancer, it might also allow cancer researchers to use the laboratory plant Arabidopsis as a model to study chromosome behavior in cancer. Chromothripsis involves slicing chromosomes into apparently random pieces, and reassembling it like a broken vase, often with pieces completely missing or in the wrong place. Generally speaking, this is not a good thing, although in one recently published case a woman was cured of a genetic disorder when the gene responsible was lost due to chromothripsis. Han Tan, Professor Luca Comai and colleagues were studying centromeres, the handles by which chromosomes are moved and allocated to daughter cells during cell division. They discovered that when a variant of the model plant Arabidopsis with weakened centromeres is crossed to a plant with normal centromeres, the resulting embryos undergo chromothripsis, the cut-and-reassembly process leading to 'shattered chromosomes.'