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Researchers from VIB-UGent have discovered a gene that significantly increases plant growth and seed yield in maize. Research into crop yield is crucial because of the increasing incidence of extreme weather conditions affecting agriculture. The results from laboratory research were confirmed during two-year field trials conducted in Belgium and the United States showing that this gene can increase seed yield in maize hybrids by 10 to 15%.
VIB-UGent scientists, headed by Prof. Dirk Inzé and Dr. Hilde Nelissen, are conducting research into the molecular mechanisms behind leaf growth in maize. Leaf development is a blueprint for the plant's growth processes. Indeed, knowing how leaves grow provides a great deal of information about the growth of the plant as a whole. The researchers discovered a gene in maize, named PLA1, which significantly increases plant growth and the size of plant organs such as the leaves, but also the cob. Dirk Inzé says: "We have succeeded in significantly boosting biomass and seed production by increasing PLA1 expression in the plant, which leads to a yield increase of 10 to 15% on the same agricultural area."
Dirk Inzé, Hilde Nelissen, et al. Altered expression of maize PLASTOCHRON1 enhances biomass and seed yield by extending cell division duration. Nature Communications, 2017; 8: 14752 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14752
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 18 2017, @04:36AM (3 children)
Or, we could, you know, just stop planting optimized commodity yield monocultures and re-introduce diversity into the mainstream food supply? Do you think the supermarkets could take it? Random corn varieties with no branding? Doesn't seem likely to fly in a culture that supports McDonalds.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 18 2017, @04:50AM
Latest thing in our local supermarket organic section is a bag of carrots, all different colors - orange (of course), yellow, purple & istr tan.
I'd try a mixed bag of different kinds of corn, assuming they all came ripe at the same time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by c0lo on Saturday March 18 2017, @07:00AM
And lose 15% of the high fructose corn syrup? That's like letting money on the table, a blasphemy!! It's illegal, immoral, but doesn't fatten enough!!!
(grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 4, Interesting) by canopic jug on Saturday March 18 2017, @10:39AM
We've been there and done that already and suffered enough. If this were about increasing the quality of the yield, that would be great, but this seems to be again about increasing volume at the cost of nutrition. The first time we did that with maize on an industrial scale, it was the 1930s and we lost like 90% of the vitamins and protein from the cobs even while the cobs went up greatly in size. Starch filled up the rest.
Additionally, the GMO method suffers heavily from the bottleneck/founder effect [berkeley.edu] many orders of magnitude greater than generational breeding. Monoculture almost wiped out the US maize [nau.edu] at least once before. It certainly wiped out the crop from 1970. GMO makes the country more vulnerable, not more productive.
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