Berlin
HUMANS are causing global warming and plants will suffer during hotter, drier summers. Now German researchers are creating plants that can withstand climate change and even produce greater yields.
Too much heat melts, or denatures, the proteins plants use to stay healthy. Usually plants use “heat-shock factors” to make denatured proteins resume their shape.
By modifying these heat-shock factors, geneticist Friedrich Sch枚ffl of the Eberhard Karls University of T眉bingen has created a heat tolerant form of thale cress鈥擜rabidopsis thaliana鈥攁 weed studied because of its small and modifiable genome.
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When Arabidopsis gets too hot, HSF-1 enters the cell nucleus, turning on heat-shock protein-producing genes. Sch枚ffl found that by fusing HSF-1 to an enzyme called glucuronidase these genes became active at normal temperatures, making the cell produce a constant supply of heat-shock proteins.
Sch枚ffl says the genetically modified varieties of Arabidopsis were more robust鈥攇enerally tolerating saline soils, cold temperatures and drought. He says this may lead to greater yields in commercial crops, too, because similar heat-shock factors are present in all plants. “The genetic potential of plants is much higher than is realised under normal conditions,” he says.
Sch枚ffl is collaborating with Planta, a subsidiary of German seed giant KWS GmbH on stress-resistant versions of sugar beet and oilseed rape.
Erika Schulte-Kappert, a researcher at Planta, says progress before now has been slow because gene libraries of these crops are incomplete, making it difficult to identify the correct nucleotide sequences. The researchers believe it could be seven years before heat resistant plants are commercially available.
