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As anyone who has ever had a house plant die on them will tell you, plants need regular water intake to survive. Indeed, the idea of a plant that can survive for days, weeks, even months without water may seem completely otherworldly. And, yet, there are certain plants-known colloquially as "resurrection plants"-that can do just that.
With climate change-induced droughts becoming more common and more intense, researchers are now looking at whether it is possible to take inspiration from resurrection plants and modify food crops to be able to do the same. Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.
As climate change continues to wreak havoc on the planet, one of the main challenges farmers must deal with is drought.
Of course, drought has always been a key issue in agriculture. However, rising greenhouse gas emissions are making the problem worse.
With no sign that things are going to improve any time soon, experts are looking at inventive ways to ensure that agriculture can survive extremely dry conditions.
One key area of interest is resurrection plants. These are plants that can survive up to six months or more without water.
Some researchers believe that taking inspiration from the genes of resurrection plants may be key to adapting agriculture for the future.
There are various, unrelated species of resurrection plants, and they are primarily found in South Africa, Australia, and South America.
The fact that they are scattered suggests that these different species evolved independently to survive for long periods without water.
When resurrection plants are left for extended periods without hydration, their leaves turn brown and brittle to the touch.
However, once they are given water, they will become green again within hours. After a day, they return to their former selves and continue to photosynthesize.
While this ability to 'come back from the dead' is common among mosses and ferns, it is quite rare in flowering plants.
Indeed, there are 352,000 known species of flowering plant, and only 240 of those have the ability to come back to life.
So how do resurrection plants pull off this apparent magic trick? The answer lies in their ability to replace water with sugars, such as sucrose.
By replacing disappearing water with sugars, these plants turn the insides of their cells into a viscous, glass-like substance that slows down chemical reactions.
This process is called vitrification, and it is the same process used by animals that are tolerant to desiccation (i.e. extreme drying), such as tardigrades (water bears).
As they turn to glass, these plants also deconstruct the material they use for photosynthesis, such as their chloroplasts.
By doing this, they switch off their primary source of food as they move into a state of dormancy.
To hold their proteins and cell membranes together, they secrete a suite of protective proteins.
These protective proteins are called "chaperones," since they guide the plant’s cells through a difficult period.
In a way, the miraculous capabilities of resurrection plants are not so different from the seeds of most flowering plants.
Indeed, when dried and stored in a dark place, many seeds can survive for years, even millennia, without losing their ability to one day become a plant.
However, in the majority of plants, once the first green shoot emerges, this ability to survive desiccation is lost. It is traded for faster growth, high yield, and more nutritious fruits and seeds.
As extreme weather continues to jeopardize crops, researchers are wondering whether it may be possible to recreate the abilities of resurrection plants in ordinary food crops.
It is important to note that many food crops, such as wheat, maize, and soybean, have already become more resilient to drought through selective breeding.
By choosing plants that flower faster, for example, farmers can ensure that their crops continue to produce seeds, even in a shorter growing season.
However, as droughts become more unpredictable, as well as more common, experts now believe that more drastic measures may be needed to ensure crop survival.
For a long time, scientists believed that the only way to introduce resurrection talents to food crops was via a process called transgenic genetic modification.
Essentially this would involve inserting the DNA from a distant resurrection plant relative into the genome of the desired food crop.
According to recent research, however, this type of genetic modification may not be necessary. Indeed, studies show that most plants already have the necessary genes to survive desiccation.
Therefore, creating drought-resistant plants may simply be a question of 'reactivating' a genetic toolkit that was silenced in the plant upon germination.
Since this process would not involve any genetic modification, it may not be as controversial as was previously thought.
Sources: (BBC)
See also: The link between pollution and extreme weather events
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LIFESTYLE Climate change
As anyone who has ever had a house plant die on them will tell you, plants need regular water intake to survive. Indeed, the idea of a plant that can survive for days, weeks, even months without water may seem completely otherworldly. And, yet, there are certain plants-known colloquially as "resurrection plants"-that can do just that.
With climate change-induced droughts becoming more common and more intense, researchers are now looking at whether it is possible to take inspiration from resurrection plants and modify food crops to be able to do the same. Curious? Check out this gallery to find out more.