Drought-Resistant Crops?
Aussie Researchers Stumble onto Possible Solution.
Chloroplasts, the little green guys that turn sunlight into food for plants, may be the key to feeding people in the future.
Drought is a major natural threat to worldwide food production, but a team of Australian researchers say they have found a "completely unexpected" to use chloroplasts to make crops 50 percent more drought resistant.
"Chloroplasts are actually capable of sensing drought stress and telling the leaves to shut-up and prevent water from being lost during drought stress,” Kai Chan, a biologist at Australian National University, told the Australian Broadcasting Company.
The team was able to use the chloroplast signal to stimulate a barley plant’s cells and close the pores, Xinhua reports.
They found that enhancing the chloroplast signal on the cells, the barley survived in drought conditions 50 percent longer.
"We have got very strong reason to believe that this ability is also present in other major crops like rice and wheat," Chan told ABC.
Chan told ABC he was working to develop a chemical spray to boost the chloroplast signal that closes pores on plant leaves.
This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.