Enzymes that control a plant’s response to lower oxygen levels could be manipulated to make vital crops resistant to the impacts of flooding triggered by climate change, new research shows.
Enzymes that control a plant’s response to lower oxygen levels could be manipulated to make vital crops resistant to the impacts of flooding triggered by climate change, new research shows.
Co-author Dr Mark White in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney said: “Climate change is a major global issue, not least for its impact on food security. We hope these findings can help produce flood-tolerant crops to help mitigate the devasting social and economic impact of extreme weather events on food production.”
The research, largely done at the University of Oxford, is published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Climate change has increased the number and intensity of global flooding events, threatening food security through significant crop loss. Plants, including staple crops such as rice, wheat and barley, can survive temporary periods of flooding by activating energy pathways that don’t rely on air in response to the low oxygen conditions in water.
Read more at University of Sydney
Image: Dr Mark White, School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney (Credit: University of Sydney)
