SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
Solving the world's food, feed and bioenergy challenges requires integration of multiple approaches and diverse skills. Andrea Eveland, Ph.D., assistant member at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and her team identified a genetic mechanism that controls developmental traits related to grain production in cereals. The work was performed in Setaria viridis, an emerging model system for grasses that is closely related to economically important cereal crops and bioenergy feed stocks such as maize, sorghum, switchgrass and sugarcane.
The Eveland laboratory's research findings, "Brassinosteroids modulate meristem fate and differentiation of unique inflorescence morphology in Setaria viridis", were recently published in the journal The Plant Cell. In their study, Yang et al. mapped a genetic locus in the S. viridis genome that controls growth of sterile branches called bristles, which are produced on the grain-bearing inflorescences of some grass species. Their research revealed that these sterile bristles are initially programmed to be spikelets; grass-specific structures that produce flowers and grain. Eveland's work showed that conversion of a spikelet to a bristle is determined early in inflorescence development and regulated by a class of plant hormones called brassinosteroids (BRs), which modulate a range of physiological processes in plant growth, development and immunity. In addition to converting a sterile structure to a seed-bearing one, the research also showed that localized disruption of BR synthesis can lead to production of two flowers per spikelet rather than the single one that typically forms. These BR-dependent phenotypes therefore represent two potential avenues for enhancing grain production in millets, including subsistence crops in many developing countries that remain largely untapped for genetic improvement.
"This work is a great demonstration of how Setaria viridis can be leveraged to gain fundamental insights into the mechanisms that govern seed production in the grasses - our most important group of plants that includes corn, sorghum, rice, wheat and barley," said Thomas Brutnell, Ph.D., Director of the Enterprise Institute for Renewable Fuels, Danforth Center. "It's also worth noting that this project was conceived and work initiated after Dr. Eveland joined the Danforth Center - an impressive feat for a junior faculty member that speaks to both the advantages of working on a model system and the great team that she has assembled at the Danforth Center."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @12:15PM (4 children)
I've seen numerous colleagues using that excuse for their research. The fact however is, is that production output isn't the real problem (even with the amount of land available for this). The real problem is food distribution, geopolitical problems and lack of knowledge about proper land use. You could design plants that produce 10x the output, but if you don't tackle the issues I just mentioned, you're not solving any of those challenges.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @12:30PM (3 children)
https://www.thenational.ae/world/africa/corruption-eats-into-somalia-s-food-aid-1.502144 [thenational.ae]
Food aid problems would also fall under food distribution. Food gets redistributed from the first to third world, but ends up enriching corrupt officials or warlords along the way.
https://www.cnbc.com/id/100893540 [cnbc.com]
GMO hysterics aside, growing "the crops natural to the land" can be a better solution than giving farmers super corn.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 08 2018, @03:07PM (1 child)
We're growing more crops, but to what end? My parents grew some potatoes last year in a bucket and the density difference between them and the ones that they bought was staggering. They were literally the same potatoes, just grown in a nutrient rich soil and they were significantly denser than what the stores are selling.
There's been all this focus on increasing production, but it doesn't appear to have really gotten much for it. Sure, we're producing more, but we have to also eat more because the nutrients that were there previously aren't.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 10 2018, @02:39AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 09 2018, @10:57AM
I've seen people complaining about why they keep having to give to [insert world aid organization] here, and they were cheated because years later the problem re-occurs. But the reason is the organizations were actually successful and hundreds of thousands of starving children were saved, grew up and produced millions of starving children ;).
And thing is since the problem keeps growing it means the people in charge can often get higher salaries for managing larger teams ;).
If you look at those sponsor a child sites you'll soon notice that the majority of them aren't orphans. So think about why people produce children they can't afford to raise properly...