Experts Discover Molecular Mechanisms Involved in Flood Tolerance

This month, thousands of families lost their homes and soaked their crops when flood swept across Central America. Thailand also experienced heavy downpours causing flooding they have experienced for the last 50 years. These prolonged floods have caused losses in agriculture specifically by limiting the supply of oxygen that is needed by crops to thrive.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham and University of California-Riverside have identified the molecular mechanisms in plants that are involved in their detection of low oxygen levels. The mechanism controls key proteins in plants causing them to be unstable when oxygen levels are normal. When oxygen levels drop due to flooding, these proteins become stable. This breakthrough could eventually help researchers develop high-yielding, flood-tolerant crops, and thus, benefiting farmers, markets, and consumers across the globe.

Read the original release at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2011/october/breakthrough-in-flood-tolerant-crops.aspx. The research paper is published in the journal Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature10534.html.