Drought resistant tomato
a team of scientists in the us has developed tomato plants with high tolerance to drought conditions. It is believed that the results can be replicated in other crop plants.
Led by Kendal Hirschi, a researcher at Texas a & m University's Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center and Baylor's College of Medicine, the team made tomato plants over-express a gene called avp1, which resulted in stronger, larger root systems that could make better use of limited water.
"The gene gave us a better root system, and the root system could then take the adjustment to drought stress better and thus grow better,' says Hirschi in a paper detailing a strategy to engineer drought-resistant crop plants. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on December 13, 2005.
The researchers said regular or control tomatoes used in the experiment suffered irreversible damage after five days without water. But the transgenic tomatoes, which began to show signs of damage after 13 days, rebounded completely as soon as they were watered, as per the study.
This technology could ultimately be applied to all crops because it involves the over-expression of a gene found in all plants, said Roberto Gaxiola, plant biologist at the University of Connecticut in the us and the lead author of the study. "It has the potential to revolutionise agriculture and improve food production worldwide by addressing an increasing global concern: water scarcity.'
The study marks the first time the enhanced gene has been inserted in a commercially viable crop, said Gaxiola.
The paper notes that drought conditions throughout the world carve out a huge amount of food production every year. To overcome food shortages, the authors suggest that "it will be necessary to increase the productivity of land already under cultivation and to regain the use of arable land lost to scarce water supplies'.
Hirschi, whose research focuses on boosting nutrients in plants to make them more nutritional for children, said the study now may be tried on other crops. Gaxiola said he already has additional studies underway to demonstrate how this technology applies to other commercial crops.