Question: how would designing a 'gene-for-gene jigsaw'... help if you win the prize money?

Dionne Turnbull answered on 5 Nov 2018:

I think it’s really important to help people see that science is a huge part of everyday life, it’s not just something that scientists do! There is a lot of science involved in growing healthy crops… from getting the soil right, planting at the right time, harvesting in the right way…. and genetics is also really important. Farmers grow lots of different varieties of potato for example, and some of these are more resistant to disease than others. We can use our knowledge of the plant immune system to breed stronger, healthier crops. If the plants have strong disease resistance, then they don’t need to be sprayed with chemicals in the field to keep them healthy.

My ‘gene-for-gene jigsaw’ would help to educate people about disease resistance genes in plants, and would hopefully explain things in a fun way. Genetics can be a bit of a scary topic, it’s so complicated! But when you break it down there are some simple rules at work. If a plant has one particular ‘resistance gene’, it is able to recognise a disease with a particular ‘effector gene’ – and that means the plant can defend itself and stay healthy. That’s where the ‘gene-for-gene’ bit comes in 🙂