Secrets of drought resistance revealed

Researchers in California have discovered the secrets of drought resistance, which may help scientists design new ways to protect crops against prolonged dry periods.

The findings could also help scientists to develop ways to potentially improve crop yields worldwide, aiding biofuels production on marginal lands and mitigating drought's human and economic costs, according to a study published in the journal Science Express, an advance online issue of the journal Science, on Oct. 22.

The discovery was made by a team of biologists led by researchers at The Scripps Research Institute and the University of California (UC), San Diego.

"This molecular structure helps explain the mechanism behind drought tolerance in plants," said Elizabeth Getzoff, a Scripps Research scientist who led the team from Scripps Research, UC San Diego, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and UC Riverside.

"In revealing how a plant hormone functions under stressful conditions, this work provides important clues about how hormones might regulate crucial physiological responses in humans," said Jean Chin, a program director with the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Co-investigator Julian Schroeder of UC San Diego explained: "Abscisic acid triggers an array of plant drought-tolerance mechanisms."

The hormone abscisic acid was discovered in the early 1960s, and plant biologists have known for decades that it plays this crucial role in keeping plants alive during drought.

However, nobody has understood how the hormone functions.

Getzoff said the structure may reveal new ways of improving drought tolerance in plants.

Such improvements would be a boon for agriculture, which is the single largest use for water in most of the world, consuming up to90 percent of available water in some of the hottest and most arid parts of the world, which are often prone to drought, Getzoff added.

According to Getzoff, one possible way to translate this research to agricultural products would be to design chemicals to mimic the action of abscisic acid.

Such chemicals, he added, would then be sprayed on crops to protect them in the face of looming drought. The hormone itself would not work for this purpose because industrial-scale production of abscisic acid would be very expensive and sunlight can convert it into an inactive form.

Source: Xinhua