University of Guelph scientists have released a study that appears too good to be true.
Researchers in the university’s molecular and cellular biology department say they have discovered a starch enzyme that doubles a plant’s growth and increases seed production by 400 percent.
The finding may lead to substantially higher yields in oilseed crops such as canola, soybeans and camelina if the biologists can transfer the enzyme into commercial crops.
“Even if the effects in a field-grown crop were less, such as only a tenth of what we’ve seen in the lab, that would still represent an increase in yield of 40 to 50 percent,” said professor Michael Emes, who made the discovery with U of G colleagues Ian Tetlow and Fushan Liu.
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The three researchers wrote in a paper published in March in Plant Biotechnology Journal that the discovery was an accident.
They were studying starch biosynthesis and wanted to know if a starch branching enzyme in corn could help a model plant, arabidopsis, form starch in its leaves.
Starch biosynthesis is the process where a plant converts sunlight into starch.
The enzyme did indeed increase the amount of starch in the leaves when the scientists transferred it into arabidopsis, an oilseed plant.
But something else happened.
“When we looked at the plants … they were huge. They were about twice the size of the normal arabidopsis plant,” Tetlow said.
“We got a huge increase in growth rate and a huge increase in biomass.”
The treated plants also produced many more flowers and an incredible number of seeds. The seed yield in arabidopsis is typically 11,000 seeds per plant, but the transformed plants with the corn enzyme produced more than 50,000 seeds.
The seeds were about 10 percent smaller, but the yield increase was still more than 400 percent.
Tetlow and his colleagues initially didn’t believe what they saw. So they did the experiment again and again.
“We did this many times, through many lines (of arabidopsis),” Tetlow said.
“(And) you don’t lose this gain through subsequent generations (of plants). The plants are now in the fifth or sixth generation and … we’re still getting this huge increase.”
The biologists must now answer two questions:
* Why is the starch enzyme causing the yield gain?
* Is it possible to duplicate this result in a commercial oilseed crop?
Tetlow said they don’t know what’s causing the incredible growth rate and seed production in the arabidopsis plant.
“Visually, it’s difficult to argue with it. You can actually look and see the difference in the size of the plant and hence the number of seeds,” he said.
“What’s difficult for us to understand is … how you apparently gain so much biomass and yield with the same input.”
The biologists are also figuring out how to move the corn enzyme into canola, a close relative of arabidopsis. They have approached crop science companies for funding, but the answer has been no.
“There’s been interest (from) companies but most … don’t want to touch it because it’s arabidopsis,” Tetlow said.
“They’ve told us they will be interested when we’ve done this in a crop, (but) it takes funding and time to do that.”
They have also applied to Genome Canada for support and are expecting a response this year.
In the meantime, the scientists remain hopeful.
“We’re very excited,” Tetlow said.
“Because clearly we’re seeing a real phenomenon.”
robert.arnason@producer.com
