Even under normal circumstances, drought is a regular occurrence in agricultural regions. Several human-driven trends, from groundwater depletion to climate change, are expected to aggravate natural water shortages. While crops can’t be expected to be very productive during times of drought, it might be possible to at least get them to better tolerate short periods of water scarcity without dying.
Efforts to that end have largely focused on traditional breeding between commercial crops and drought-tolerant relatives. But researchers are now reporting progress with an alternative approach: genetic engineering. They have taken a signaling network that plants normally use to respond to stresses such as lack of water and have rewired it so that it responds to a molecule that’s normally used to kill fungus.
The signaling network that was used normally responds to a chemical made by plants called abscisic acid. Its response triggers longterm changes by regulating the activity of genes. But it also has a short-term effect: it helps plants hold on to water. It does this by affecting what are called “guard cells,” which form part of the openings (called stomata) that plants use to regulate the flow of gases into and out of their leaves.
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