Researchers at the University of California, Riverside, reported this month that they had developed a method to increase the resistance of grain crops to drought.
In research to be published in the December issue of The Plant Journal, the researchers describe how lowering the levels of an enzyme called ACC synthase in turn reduces production of ethylene. Ethylene is responsible for the deaths of leaves in response to adverse environmental conditions, such as drought.
The researchers searched through thousands of plants, looking for ones that had naturally lower levels of ACC synthase. In a press release announcing their findings, the University of California, Riverside noted,
In addition, the plants were more resistant to the effects of adverse environmental conditions. Surprisingly, by reducing the level of ethylene, all the leaves of the altered plants contained higher levels of chlorophyll and leaf protein, and functioned better than control leaves.
“Thus, they are able to survive conditions of drought and remain productive,” said Professor [Daniel] Gallie, who led a research team that included UCR Colleague Todd E. Young and Robert B. Meeley, of Pioneer Hi-Bred. “Erratic rainfall and conditions of drought have plagued farmers from time immemorial, and are responsible for substantial losses in crop yield when they do occur.”
This opens the possibility, of course, of using traditional plant breeding or genetic modification to create crop plants well suited for more arid parts of the world.
Source:
Researchers discover new way to boost grain crops’ drought tolerance. Press Release, University of California, Riverside, November 17, 2004.