It’s not exactly an Agatha Christie page-turner, but it’s a mystery that has puzzled plant scientists for years.
Now a team of Canadian scientists has solved the mystery and that could produce a big payoff for farmers in Canada and around the world.
Scientists have known for nearly 50 years that a hormone called abscisic acid, or ABA, was crucial to a plant’s ability to survive environmental stress, particularly when related to dehydration and drought.
What they didn’t know was the precise molecular mechanism in the plant that triggered the effects of ABA.
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Now they do, thanks to a team of researchers led by Robert Hill, a molecular biologist at the University of Manitoba.
The researchers identified a protein called FCA as the receptor by which ABA binds to the plant and provides its beneficial effects.
Now it’s up to plant breeders in Canada and around the world to make use of that knowledge to develop hardier, higher yielding, higher quality crops.
“I don’t want to build up the hopes of farmers too much because it will take five to 10 years to see the benefits,” Hill said last week.
“But there is a lot of potential for increased productivity.”
The hormone ABA is generally produced by a plant to help it deal with external environmental stress including drought, salt and freezing, along with dehydration associated with the latter stages of seed maturation.
It also plays a role in enabling the seed to remain viable when dry and in inducing dormancy to reduce or eliminate preharvest sprouting.
“The next step is to look at existing varieties to see how this knowledge can be applied to existing varieties and used in selecting new cultivars,” said Hill.
While it’s still speculation at this point, he said farmers in Western Canada will potentially benefit in a number of ways from the discovery.
- It will change the way varieties are selected to deal with preharvest sprouting problems.
- It will enable more white wheat to be grown by reducing the risk of sprouting.
- Malting barley varieties will be improved in terms of germination and maintaining quality all the way to the end user.
- It could have beneficial effects with dry-down and green seed in canola.
- It can be used to select for tolerance to drought, salt and cold.
Research conducted in collaboration with the National Research Council’s Biotechnology Institute in Saskatoon was funded by Genome Canada, a nonprofit corporation that acts as the primary funding and information resource in this field in Canada.
Jerome Konecsni, president of Genome Prairie, which acts as Genome Canada’s voice on the Prairies, said the discovery will affect the quality, yield and durability of prairie crops.
“It’s going to significantly reduce the farmers’ production risks,” he said.
The technology resulting from the research project is owned by the University of Manitoba and the National Research Council, which will presumably find industrial partners to apply that technology.
Konecsni said Genome Prairie will play a role in helping to develop the commercial relationships needed to bring the benefits of the technology to farmers’ fields.
He said the discovery demonstrates that Canada is world leader in genomics research, thanks in large part to the funding provided by Genome Canada. Since 2000, the organization has provided more than $560 million to 112 projects.
