How to Cause Trees to Grow Bigger and Faster: New Genes for Crops

Scientists may have discovered a new way to make trees grow bigger and faster, which could increase supplies of renewable resources and help trees cope with the effects of climate change.

"The rate at which trees grow is determined by the rate of cell division in the stem," said Simon Turner, the leader of the new research, in a news release. "We have identified two genes that are able to drive cell division in the stem and so override the normal growth pattern."

The two genes are called PXY and CLE and control the growth of a tree trunk. When overexpressed, making them more active than in their normal state, the trees grew twice as fast as normal and were taller, wider, and had more leaves.

"Our work offers the possibility we may be able to maintain a fast growth rate even in the face of adverse and changeable environmental conditions that all plants are likely faced with," said Turner. "Most plants, including crops, respond to adverse environmental conditions with lower growth rates that result in correspondingly lower yields. Understanding how the plants respond to environmental signals and to what extent we are able to manipulate them to override these signals is likely to be very important for continued improvements to crop performance. In future it may be possible that manipulating the expression of the PXY and CLE genes can override environmental signals that normally alter plant growth."

Currently, the researchers are planning on working with a forest production company in order to test their findings in the field. If successful, this may be a new way to be able to grow better crops.

The findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

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