'Climate change resistant crops' move nearer after gene breakthrough

[phantom power]

Hacking the regulome.

In a breakthrough that has the potential to help feed billions of people, scientists from the John Innes Centre in Norwich have found the "thermometer gene" which plants use to sense temperature.

Laboratory tests on a mustard seed plant showed that the gene that plants use in order to know when to grow in the warmer months can be manipulated by taking away a histone protein.

...

The findings could pave the way for climate change resistant crops within 10 years.

The new super crops would be able to cope with the increased heat expected as the earth's temperature rises and the research could also help grow plants in much colder climates.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/6946413/Climate-change-resistant-crops-move-nearer-after-gene-breakthrough.html

[tabatha]

1. That probably means that native plants will be left to die

crop plants allowed to survive, and biodiversity will sink like a stone.