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Improving Crop Yields in a World of Extreme Weather Events
http://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/16076[font face=Serif][font size=5]Improving Crop Yields in a World of Extreme Weather Events[/font]
[font size=4]UC Riverside-led team develops new chemical for improving drought tolerance[/font]
By Iqbal Pittalwala on July 1, 2013
[font size=3]RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Farmers in the United States witnessed record-breaking extremes in temperature and drought during the last two summers, causing worldwide increases in the costs of food, feed and fiber. Indeed, many climate scientists caution that extreme weather events resulting from climate change is the new normal for farmers in North America and elsewhere, requiring novel agricultural strategies to prevent crop losses.
…
Named “quinabactin” by the researchers, the chemical mimics a naturally occurring stress hormone in plants that helps the plants cope with drought conditions.
…
During drought the stomata close firmly to limit water loss. Behind the scenes, a small hormone called abscisic acid (ABA) orchestrates the opening and closing of the pores. Cells throughout the plant produce increasing amounts of ABA as water levels decrease. ABA then moves throughout the plant to signal the stressful conditions and close the stomata. Inside plant cells, ABA does its job by turning on a special class of proteins called receptors. The discovery in 2009 of ABA receptors by the same team behind the current breakthrough was heralded by Science magazine as one of the top breakthroughs of 2009 because of its relevance to the drought problem.
…
To address this problem, Cutler and his team searched through many thousands of molecules to identify inexpensive synthetic chemicals that could activate the receptors by mimicking ABA. The team found and named quinabactin, a molecule they show is almost indistinguishable from ABA in its effects, but much simpler chemically and therefore easier to make than ABA. By studying how the new molecule activates the ABA receptors that are involved in drought tolerance, the team also has learned more about the underlying control logic of the stress response system and provided new information that can be used for others interested in developing similar molecules,
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1305919110 (Doesn’t work yet.)
[font size=4]UC Riverside-led team develops new chemical for improving drought tolerance[/font]
By Iqbal Pittalwala on July 1, 2013
[font size=3]RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Farmers in the United States witnessed record-breaking extremes in temperature and drought during the last two summers, causing worldwide increases in the costs of food, feed and fiber. Indeed, many climate scientists caution that extreme weather events resulting from climate change is the new normal for farmers in North America and elsewhere, requiring novel agricultural strategies to prevent crop losses.
…
Named “quinabactin” by the researchers, the chemical mimics a naturally occurring stress hormone in plants that helps the plants cope with drought conditions.
…
During drought the stomata close firmly to limit water loss. Behind the scenes, a small hormone called abscisic acid (ABA) orchestrates the opening and closing of the pores. Cells throughout the plant produce increasing amounts of ABA as water levels decrease. ABA then moves throughout the plant to signal the stressful conditions and close the stomata. Inside plant cells, ABA does its job by turning on a special class of proteins called receptors. The discovery in 2009 of ABA receptors by the same team behind the current breakthrough was heralded by Science magazine as one of the top breakthroughs of 2009 because of its relevance to the drought problem.
…
To address this problem, Cutler and his team searched through many thousands of molecules to identify inexpensive synthetic chemicals that could activate the receptors by mimicking ABA. The team found and named quinabactin, a molecule they show is almost indistinguishable from ABA in its effects, but much simpler chemically and therefore easier to make than ABA. By studying how the new molecule activates the ABA receptors that are involved in drought tolerance, the team also has learned more about the underlying control logic of the stress response system and provided new information that can be used for others interested in developing similar molecules,
…[/font][/font]
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2013/06/28/1305919110.abstract
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