Your herb garden may be packing more plant power than you think. Common plants like basil, thyme, and lavender don’t just add flavor – they’re part of a botanical family that’s quietly storing enormous genetic surprises.
One of their lesser-known cousins just revealed a hidden capacity that could have major implications for health, farming, and science.
In a new study, researchers at Michigan State University discovered that a Mediterranean shrub called ground oak has a genome almost as large as a human’s – about three billion base pairs.
The shrub also carries four full sets of chromosomes, plus an unusually large gene cluster tied to the production of potent natural chemicals.
Plants with hidden powers
The mint family of plants has long intrigued scientists for its powerful natural properties. Certain species have shown potential as anti-cancer, anti-viral, or pest-repellent agents. But harnessing those chemicals in useful quantities has always been a challenge.
The new genetic insight could bring researchers closer to doing just that – by replicating the plant’s chemical-making machinery in the lab.
“What if we could spray our veggies with a natural product that makes a hungry deer or insect say, ‘No thank you,’” said MSU researcher Björn Hamberger, pointing to possible agricultural uses.
“These plants also have exciting antimicrobial properties, which could help with the trouble we see nowadays concerning antibiotic resistance.”
“This project was like many others where we walked in thinking we knew just what to do,” Hamberger said. “We’ve learned again that plants always have something more up their sleeves.”
Ground oak links to healing
Humans have relied on mint family plants for thousands of years – not just for taste and scent, but also for healing and wellness.
At Michigan State University, Hamberger and his team focus on the special molecules created by these plants, known as specialized metabolites. The molecules help plants survive harsh environments and resist disease, pests, or other threats.
Unlike basic molecules that all plants need to live (like sugars and amino acids), these specialized metabolites are more like bonus features. Some might repel bugs. Others might fight off bacteria. And many of them, scientists are learning, could be used to improve human health or agriculture.
“Plants don’t have the luxury of running away from pests or pathogens, so they turn to chemistry to get the job done,” said Hamberger.
In previous work, the Hamberger Lab sequenced the genome of American beautyberry, a plant known for its mosquito-repelling properties. That work helped uncover how different mint family members evolved their chemical arsenals.
The research also earned MSU graduate students Abigail Bryson and Nicholas Schlecht the university’s Neogen Land Grant Prize – awarded to research that promises real-world scientific and economic impact.
Why ground oak?
To push further into the mint family’s chemical secrets, Bryson set her sights on ground oak, a small mounded shrub with pinkish-purple flowers and oak-shaped leaves. Native to the Mediterranean, the plant hasn’t been widely studied.
“We thought: let’s sequence ground oak, find out how the plants achieve their useful chemical products, and get a blueprint to build plant-derived therapeutics in the lab,” said Hamberger.
“This was all good, until Abby found out ground oak had an unexpectedly massive surprise in store for us.”
One of the largest plant genomes
The commonly studied Arabidopsis plant has about 135 million DNA base pairs. Ground oak has nearly 3 billion – more than 20 times as much.
“When you assemble a genome, it’s like you have parts of sentences of a book, and you are trying to figure out what the story says, line by line, chapter by chapter,” said Bryson, lead author of the study and now a postdoctoral researcher at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center.
“Something about genomes that is difficult to picture is the size of the data we are working with. If the genome was the size of an actual book, the thickness of that book would be hundreds of feet, and the human and ground oak genomes would be around the size of world’s fifth tallest building,” she added.
To handle the challenge, Bryson collaborated with plant genome expert Robin Buell and got additional support from MSU’s Department of Plant Biology and the Max T. Rogers Nuclear Magnetic Resonance facility.
The surprises didn’t stop at size. Ground oak turned out to be tetraploid – meaning it carries four complete sets of chromosomes. Humans, by comparison, have two.
“Imagine if you have to sort through and solve four puzzles dumped into the same box – that’s what Abby achieved,” said Hamberger.
The team also found a large gene cluster – a tight grouping of related genes – linked to the production of the plant’s specialized metabolites. That’s significant because gene clusters like this can streamline how traits evolve and are passed on.
In an earlier study of American beautyberry, the Hamberger Lab found a similar but smaller gene cluster. The discovery suggests this kind of genomic arrangement might be common across mint family plants – and may help explain how these species evolved such a wide range of powerful compounds.
Why cluster or duplicate genes at all? According to Hamberger, it’s about efficiency. “If one set of genetic information is already performing an important duty, its duplicate is free to evolve newer functions,” he said.
“Once materials are packed together tightly, it’s easier to move them onto the next generation.”
A future powered by plants
With these discoveries, the team at MSU is a step closer to producing useful plant-based chemicals in the lab at scale. That could mean more sustainable pest control, new antimicrobial treatments, or even fresh strategies to tackle diseases that resist current medicine.
So, the next time you smell mint or brush past rosemary in the garden, think about what’s really packed inside. It’s not just aroma or flavor – it might be the future of medicine or farming, encoded in a genome as tall as a skyscraper.
The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center.
The full study was published in the journal Plant Communications.
—–
Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.
Check us out on EarthSnap, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.
—–