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Modified · Oct 18, 2025 · 32 min

How Genes Make Plants

What are these little bundles of DNA we call genes and how does a bunch of genes work together to make a whole plant? In this episode we’ll take a journey through plant genetics and see why scientists have been so keen to unlock these secrets and ultimately to shape them to human ends. References: On the history of Japanese rice research in Taiwan: Tracing the Roots of Taiwanese Rice. Cathy Teng, photos Chuang Kung-ju, tr. by Scott Williams July 2016 Leow, W.Y. (2020). Horai Rice in the Making of Japanese Colonial Taiwan. Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 9(1), 40-66. Wikipedia: Taiwan Under Japanese Rule On Gibberellin research Hedden, P., Sponsel, V. A Century of Gibberellin Research. J Plant Growth Regul 34, 740–760 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-015-9546-1 RADLEY, M. Occurrence of Substances Similar to Gibberellic Acid in Higher Plants. Nature 178, 1070–1071 (1956). https://doi.org/10.1038/1781070a0 Bernard O Phinney. By Ann Hirsch. UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

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What are these little bundles of DNA we call genes and how does a bunch of genes work together to make a whole plant? In this episode we’ll take a journey through plant genetics and see why scientists have been so keen to unlock these secrets and ultimately to shape them to human ends. 

 

References: On the history of Japanese rice research in Taiwan: On Gibberellin research

 

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