A painstaking analysis of land-plant evolution has revealed how to engineer crops that produce a popular antioxidant supplement. Coenzyme Q is crucial for the proper function of cells' energy-producing structures, called mitochondria, and some people take the molecule as a supplement to improve heart health.Jing-JingXu at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shanghai and her colleagues studied coenzyme Q biosynthesis in 134 species from 67 land-plant families. They found that many crop species, including wheat and rice, produce a form of coenzyme Q called CoQ_9. Humans and some other plants make a different version: CoQ_(10).
NETL
NSTL
