{"id":953,"date":"2017-12-05T16:57:05","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T08:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?p=953"},"modified":"2017-12-05T16:57:05","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T08:57:05","slug":"genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/","title":{"rendered":"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keywords:\u00a0Drought-resistant plants, Gene, Water-use efficient crops<\/p>\n

Scientists at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes. The genes enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions. It could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits.<\/p>\n

Plants thrive in drylands by keeping their stomata, or pores, shut during the day to conserve water and open at night to collect carbon dioxide. This form of photosynthesis is known as crassulacean acid metabolism or CAM. It has evolved over millions of years, building water-saving characteristics in plants such as Kalancho\u00eb, orchid and pineapple.<\/p>\n

\u201cCAM is a proven mechanism for increasing water-use efficiency in plants,\u201d ORNL coauthor Xiaohan Yang said. \u201cAs we reveal the building blocks that make up CAM photosynthesis, we will be able to bioengineer the metabolic processes of water-heavy crops such as rice, wheat, soybeans and poplar to accelerate their adaptation to water-limited environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Scientists are studying a variety of drought-resistant plants to unlock the mystery of CAM photosynthesis. For this work, the ORNL-led team sequenced the genome of Kalancho\u00eb fedtschenkoi. It is an emerging model for CAM genomics research because of its relatively small genome and amenability to genetic modification.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The team investigated and compared the genomes of K. fedtschenkoi, Phalaenopsis equestris (orchid) and Ananas comosus (pineapple) using ORNL\u2019s Titan supercomputer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt is widely accepted that some unrelated plants exhibit similar characteristics under similar environmental conditions, a process known as convergent evolution,\u201d Yang said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
They identified 60 genes that exhibited convergent evolution in CAM species. That included convergent daytime and nighttime gene expression changes in 54 genes, as well as protein sequence convergence in six genes. In particular, the team discovered a novel variant of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase, or PEPC. PEPC is an important \u201cworker\u201d enzyme responsible for the nighttime fixation of carbon dioxide into malic acid. Malic acid is then converted back to carbon dioxide for photosynthesis during the day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThese convergent changes in gene expression and protein sequences could be introduced into plants that rely on traditional photosynthesis, accelerating their evolution to become more water-use efficient,\u201d said Yang. The team published their findings in Nature Communications<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Smart water use<\/strong><\/h4>\n
Crop production is the world\u2019s largest consumer of freshwater. Availability of clean water resources is shrinking because of urbanization, human population growth and changes in climate. It presents a challenge to optimal growing environments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
To address this concern, engineering CAM photosynthesis into food and energy crops could reduce agricultural water use and boost crops\u2019 resilience when the water supply is less than desirable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cStudying the genome of water-efficient plants may also provide insights into a plant\u2019s ability to use slightly saline water and maintain growth under higher temperature and lower clean water availability,\u201d said Jerry Tuskan. He is the coauthor and chief executive officer of the Center for Bioenergy Innovation led by ORNL. \u201cIf we can identify the mechanisms for water-use efficiency, we could move this trait into agronomic plants. We can supply non-potable water as irrigation to those plants and save the clean water for drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The study titled is \u201cThe Kalancho\u00eb genome provides insights into convergent evolution and building blocks of crassulacean acid metabolism,\u201d . It included ORNL coauthors Xiaohan Yang, Rongbin Hu, Hengfu Yin, Degao Liu, Deborah Weighill, Robert Moseley, Sara Jawdy, Zhihao Zhang, Meng Xie, Paul Abraham, Ritesh Mewalal, Kaitlin Palla, Henrique Cestari De Paoli, Anne Borland, Jin-Gui Chen, Wellington Muchero, Daniel Jacobson, Timothy Tschaplinski, Robert Hettich and Jerry Tuskan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The study also included collaborators from University of Tennessee. They are HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, the DOE Joint Genome Institute, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, University of Nevada, University of Georgia, Northern Illinois University, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Pacific Biosciences, Inc., Michigan State University, Newcastle University and Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The research was funded by DOE\u2019s Office of Science and ORNL\u2019s Laboratory Directed Research and Development program. The work also used resources of the Compute and Data Environment for Science at ORNL. It is a fully integrated infrastructure offering scalable computing, software support and high-performance cloud storage services and the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
\n
\n<\/em><\/div>\n
Source: \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/b>Agronews<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Keywords:\u00a0Drought-resistant plants, Gene, Water-use efficient crops Scientists at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes. The genes enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions. It could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits. Plants thrive in… Continue reading Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-industry-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nGenes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Keywords:\u00a0Drought-resistant plants, Gene, Water-use efficient crops Scientists at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes. The genes enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions. It could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits. Plants thrive in… Continue reading Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"agrinoon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/\",\"name\":\"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/\",\"name\":\"agrinoon\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/s691948366.onlinehome.us\/demo\/agrinoon\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/author\/admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon","og_description":"Keywords:\u00a0Drought-resistant plants, Gene, Water-use efficient crops Scientists at the Department of Energy\u2019s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have identified a common set of genes. The genes enable different drought-resistant plants to survive in semi-arid conditions. It could play a significant role in bioengineering and creating energy crops that are tolerant to water deficits. Plants thrive in… Continue reading Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops","og_url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/","og_site_name":"agrinoon","article_published_time":"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/","url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/","name":"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops - agrinoon","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-05T08:57:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/2017\/12\/05\/genes-found-drought-resistant-plants-accelerate-evolution-water-use-efficient-crops\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Genes found in drought-resistant plants could accelerate evolution of water-use efficient crops"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/","name":"agrinoon","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/535254a24a4e1135afec5bcc244a5a8c","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/727d38bbce271274ba21a10196f68d0e97dc7f36482cf2ddd1a056ba4ac20386?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/s691948366.onlinehome.us\/demo\/agrinoon"],"url":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/953\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.agrinoon.com\/agriculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}