Genetic Tinkering Of Plants Is The Solution To World Hunger

A decade ago, agricultural scientists at the University of Illinois, US, suggested a bold approach to improve the food supply: tinker with photosynthesis, the chemical reaction powering nearly all life on Earth. The idea was greeted skeptically in scientific circles and ignored by funding agencies. But one outfit with deep pockets, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, eventually paid attention, hoping the research might help alleviate global poverty. Now, after several years of work, the scientists are reporting a remarkable result. Using genetic engineering techniques to alter photosynthesis, they increased the productivity of a test plant -tobacco - by as much as 20%, they said on 17 November in a study published by the journal ‘Science’. That is huge, given that plant breeders struggle to eke out gains of 1 or 2% with more conventional approaches. The scientists have no interest in increasing the production of tobacco; their plan is to try the same alterations in food crops, and one of the leaders of the work believes production gains of 50% or more may ultimately be achievable. If that prediction is borne out in further research – it could take a decade, if not longer – the result might be nothing less than a transformation of global agriculture. One of the leaders of the research emphasized in an interview that a long road lay ahead before any results might reach farmers’ fields. But he is also convinced that genetic engineering could ultimately lead to what he called a “Second Green Revolution”. The research involves photosynthesis, in which plants use carbon dioxide from the sir and energy from sunlight to form new, energy-rich carbohydrates. Long thought crop yields might be improved by certain genetic changes. In the initial work, the researchers transferred genes from a common laboratory plant, known as thale cress, into strains of tobacco. The effect was to increase the level of certain proteins that already existed in tobacco. When plants receive direct sunlight, they are often getting more energy than they can use, and they activate a mechanism that helps them shed it as heat – while slowing carbohydrate production. The genetic changes help the plant turn that mechanism off faster once the excessive sunlight ends, so that the machinery of photosynthesis can get back more quickly to maximal production of carbohydrates.