Innovation Pipeline

Plant researchers have long studied why certain plants survive environmental stresses like drought while others wither and die. Now, with global warming, growing water crises around the world and increased interest in growing plants for biofuels, the question of plant survival is a hot-button issue.

Scientists from the University of California at Riverside made a significant discovery earlier this year when they determined how a stress hormone in plants, abscisic acid (ABA), helps them survive through periods of drought. Other researchers at the Scripps Research Institute and the University of California at San Diego have also been looking at ABA.

Here’s how it works. When a drought-tolerant plant detects dry conditions, the plant synthesizes ABA. That hormone effects changes from the roots to the leaves to the flowers of the plant. The outcome of the hormone release is water conservation. ABA was discovered in the early 1960s, but it wasn’t until this year that plant biologists gained a better understanding for how the hormone works.

Researchers believe these findings will help efforts to design a generation of chemicals capable of acting like a switch to shut down growth during periods of drought. Plant biologists are also expected to use the knowledge gained from these discoveries to develop new transgenic plants with higher levels of drought tolerance. Those plants could prove especially valuable in water-stressed regions of Africa.

The bottom line is the work can be a big help in reducing water consumption by agriculture. More than 70 percent of fresh water in the world is consumed by agriculture and in hot, arid regions the figure rises to 90 percent. By Lee Bruno