Scientists Genetically Modify Plant to Resist Drought to Combat Climate Change

Climate change is causing drought to be more likely in the breadbasket of the U.S. Now, though, researchers may have found a way to counteract this type of drought. They've managed to reprogram plants to consume less water after being exposed to an agrochemical.

When crops are faced with adverse environmental conditions, crop yields and the agricultural industry can suffer. Rising temperatures and lessening fresh water supplies, in particular, can cost farmers billions of dollars annually.

When plants encounter drought, they naturally produce abscisic acid (ABA), which is a stress hormone that inhibits plant growth and reduces water consumption. ABA actually turns on a receptor in plants when it binds to the receptor, resulting in beneficial changes; it closes guard cells on leaves to reduce water loss, as an example.

In theory, plants could be sprayed with ABA to assist survival. However, ABA is costly to make and rapidly inactivated inside plant cells. That's why researchers focused on engineering drought-threatened crops to respond to the agrochemical mandipropamid as if it were ABA.

"We successfully repurposed an agrochemical for new application by genetically engineering a plant receptor-something that has not been done before," said Sean Cutler, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We anticipate that this strategy of reprogramming plant responses using synthetic biology will allow other agrochemicals to control other useful traits-such as disease resistance or growth rates, for example."

The findings could be huge for creating drought-resistant plants. As the temperatures continue to rise and as drought becomes more of a risk, it's crucial to develop methods for combating drought. Not only that, but since this new method uses an agrochemical that's already approved, it means that there will be less time for approval.

"We have, in effect, circumvented this hurdle using synthetic biology-in essence, we took something that already works in the real world and reprogrammed the plant so that the chemical could control water use," said Cutler.

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).