The scientists carried out experiments to see what would happen if unmodified human/mammalian genes were inserted into the moss genome. What they discovered was that the moss was easily able to convert the code into protein using its own machinery.
This same process doesn’t work on “higher” flowering plants. The reason being is that the start and finish sequences of the genes for animals, plants, fungi and bacteria are considerably different. The more closely related an organism is the more closely related its start to finish sequences are.
Scientists believe that the moss underwent its last modification 450 million years ago when it changed from living on water to living on land. It remained unchanged for many millions of years both in its appearance and at the genetic level. The mechanism by which the moss produces proteins is much less sophisticated than latter organism that underwent further development. It’s astonishing how the moss was able to retain this foreign reading gene ability and never have used it for 450 million years.
The moss is used to produce therapeutic proteins such as insulin, which enables diabetics to maintain their blood sugar level. Using moss to produce proteins is a really cheap way to mass produce proteins because it only needs water, some salts and light to flourish.
Source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090510200001.htm
