Čtvrtek, 28. března 2024

Gene-engineered rice withstands drought, salt water

WASHINGTON - Scientists said this week they had genetically engineered rice to withstand drought, salt water and cold temperatures by borrowing a gene from the E. coli bacteria.
Gene-engineered rice withstands drought, salt water
They hope the new stress-tolerant rice will help farmers in poor countries grow more food under the worst conditions. The team, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Seoul National University in South Korea and elsewhere, added to the rice a gene for trehalose, a sugar that helps plants withstand stress. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said they hope to develop crops to feed the world\'s growing population. \"World population continues to increase at an explosive rate, our arable land is deteriorating, fresh water is becoming scarce and increasing environmental stresses pose ever more serious threats to global agricultural production and food security,\" said Ray Wu, a professor of molecular biology and genetics at Cornell who led the study. \"Anything we can do to help crop plants cope with environmental stresses will also raise the quality and quantity of food for those who need it most.\" They used Indica rice, which makes up 80 percent of the world\'s rice crop. But they believe other rice species as well as corn, wheat, millet, soybeans and sugar cane can also be genetically engineered using trehalose. \"Trehalose is a simple sugar that is produced naturally in a wide variety of organisms - from bacteria and yeasts to fungi, including mushrooms, and in many invertebrates, particularly insects,\" said Ajay Garg, a Cornell biologist who helped lead the study. \"But there is normally not much trehalose in plants, with the exception of the so-called resurrection plants that can survive prolonged droughts in the desert. Drought-stressed resurrection plants look like they are dead and gone forever; then they pop back to life when moisture is available.\" REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Sdílet článek na sociálních sítích

Partneři

Asekol - zpětný odběr vysloužilého elektrozařízení
Ekolamp - zpětný odběr světelných zdrojů
ELEKTROWIN - kolektivní systém svetelné zdroje, elektronická zařízení
EKO-KOM - systém sběru a recyklace obalových odpadů
INISOFT - software pro odpady a životní prostředí
ELKOPLAST CZ, s.r.o. - česká rodinná výrobní společnost která působí především v oblasti odpadového hospodářství a hospodaření s vodou
NEVAJGLUJ a.s. - kolektivní systém pro plnění povinností pro tabákové výrobky s filtry a filtry uváděné na trh pro použití v kombinaci s tabákovými výrobky
E.ON Energy Globe oceňuje projekty a nápady, které pomáhají šetřit přírodu a energii
Ukliďme Česko - dobrovolnické úklidy
Kam s ním? - snadné a rychlé vyhledání míst ve vašem okolí, kde se můžete legálně zbavit nechtěných věcí a odpadů