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Genetic Tweak Makes Plants Use 25% less Water

Genetic Tweak Makes Plants Use 25% less Water
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Researchers unveiled a genetic modification that enables plants to use a quarter less water with scant reduction in yield.

Genetic Tweak Makes Plants Use 25% less Water

By altering a single gene, scientists coaxed tobacco plants -- a model crop often used in experiments -- to grow to near normal size with only 75 percent of the water they usually require.

If major food crops respond the same way, they said, the first-of-its-kind genetic "hack" could help feed the growing population of an increasingly water-starved world.

"This is a major breakthrough," said senior author Stephen Long, a professor at the Institute of plant biology at the University of Illinois. 

"When water is limited, these modified plants will grow faster and yield more."

The findings were reported in the journal Nature Communications. 

Today, 1.2 billion people live in regions where water is scarce, and four billion -- two-thirds of humanity -- experience scarcity at least one month every year.

By 2030, the planet will face a 40 percent water deficit if global warming continues at its current pace, according to the UN World Water Development report.

Agriculture guzzles three-quarters of all groundwater withdrawals -- 90 percent in poor countries.

"Making crop plants more water-use efficient is arguably the greatest challenge for current and future plant scientists," said lead author Johannes Kromdijk, also from the University of Illinois.

Long and his team tweaked the gene that codes a protein -- known as PsbS -- crucial to photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert light into nutrients.

PsbS plays a key role in relaying information about the quantity of daylight, which triggers the opening and closing of microscopic leaf pores called stomata.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

 

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