Surviving Drought: Crops that Can Use 70 Percent Less Water

Researchers from the University of California Davis (UCD) have obtained genetically modified crops that can survive drought and can grow with 70 percent less irrigation water. Using tobacco as a model, the scientists successfully suppressed the programmed death of leaf cells and equip the plants to survive severe drought conditions. This was done by inserting a gene that control the level of a plant hormone called cytokinin. Cytokinin promotes cell division in young tissues.

The introduction of a gene that codes for increased cytokinin levels in stressed tissues interrupted the biochemical chain of events that normally leads to the loss of the plant's leaves during drought. Tests showed that unlike ordinary tobacco plants that shed their leaf and died if not watered for two weeks, the transgenic plants did not display any signs of severe deterioration. In addition, the transgenic plants only showed 12 percent less in yield when water supply was reduced by 70 percent. The discovery may prove to be important in agriculture in arid regions, especially as water is expected to become more scarce in the future because of climate change.

 Read more at http://www.news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=8439 The abstract of the paper published by PNAS is available at http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0709453104v1