Scientists at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln have identified a promising approach to help crops cope with drought. By using genome modification to boost a key plant protein, the researchers enabled plants to reduce their water use by up to 30% under drought-mimic conditions.
The findings mark “an important step toward future engineering of crops with improved performance under drought,” the researchers wrote in a new article in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
Husker researchers grew tobacco plants under varying drought conditions and found that a particular genetic modification allowed the plants to use 4% to 30% less water overall than normal plants. Tobacco plants are useful for research because they generally are easy to cultivate and grow fast. Their genetic details are well known, and they lend themselves well to genetic modification, facilitating follow-up research with other, more complex crops.
“Plants are using up to 30% less water but in the end, the biomass — how big they are — is not significantly different,” said Kasia Glowacka, assistant professor of biochemistry. Her lab uses a wide range of analytical techniques for boosting crop resilience in the wake of climate stress.
Plants’ improved water use efficiency is a particular focus, which has led her lab to pursue advanced studies of non-photochemical quenching, an important safety valve biological process. Plants use the process to protect themselves from stress and harm when they receive more light energy than they can use for photosynthesis.
Non-photochemical quenching can regulate the… (continue reading)
