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Tag: University of Nottingham

  • Discovery of novel gene to aid breeding of climate resilient crops

    Discovery of novel gene to aid breeding of climate resilient crops

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    Newswise — Researchers have revealed for the first time how a key gene in plants allows them to use their energy more efficiently, enabling them to grow more roots and capture more water and nutrients. 

    An international team of plant scientists led by Penn State University and in collaboration with the University of Nottingham have discovered this novel regulatory gene (called bHLH121) that enables corn roots to acquire more water and nutrients. The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

    The gene controls the formation of air spaces among living root tissues (termed root cortical aerenchyma). Replacing a large percentage of root cells with airspaces saves the plant a lot of energy which is otherwise required to feed all these root cells. This makes roots metabolically more efficient, enabling them to use the resources saved to build more roots and explore the soil more effectively and capture more water and nutrients.  

    This discovery could lead to the breeding of crops that can withstand drought and low-nitrogen soil conditions and ultimately ease global food insecurity, the researchers suggest. 

    Rahul Bhosale, Assistant Professor in Crop Functional Genomics from the School of Biosciences at the University of Nottingham and BBSRC Discovery Fellow said: “Identifying this gene and how it works will enable us to create more resilient crops that can withstand water and nutrient stress conditions being experienced as a result of climate change.”

    The research team used powerful imaging tools developed in previous research at Penn State that rapidly measured cells in thousands of roots. An imaging technique called Laser Ablation Tomography was critical for this approach. This state-of-the-art approach is also now available at the University of Nottingham through BBSRC Alert Funding and support from US partners. 

    Hannah Schneider, Assistant Professor of Crop Physiology at Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands said: “We first performed the field experiments that went into this study starting in 2010, growing more than 500 lines of corn at sites in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin and South Africa,” she said. “I worked at all those locations. We saw convincing evidence that we had located a gene associated with root cortical aerenchyma.

    This research revealed that mutant corn lines lacking the bHLH121 gene showed reduced root air space formation. In contrast, overexpressing bHLH121 caused more air space formation. 

    Characterization of these lines under suboptimal water and nitrogen availability in multiple locations revealed that the bHLH121 gene is required for root air space formation and provides a new tool for plant breeders to select varieties with improved soil exploration, and thus yield, under suboptimal conditions. 

    Professor Jonathan Lynch, who led the research at Penn State commented: “These findings are the result of many people at Penn State and beyond collaborating with us, working over many years,” he said. “We discovered the function of the aerenchyma trait and then the gene associated with it, And, it came about because of technologies that have been devised here at Penn State, such as Shovelomics — digging up roots in the field — Laser Ablation Tomography and Anatomics Pipeline. We put all those together in this work.” 

    The results are significant, Lynch continued, because finding a gene behind an important trait that’s going to help plants have better drought tolerance and better nitrogen and phosphorus capture looms large in the face of climate change. 

    “Those are super important qualities — both here in the U.S. and around the world,” he said. “Droughts are the biggest risk to corn growers and are worsening with climate change, and nitrogen is the biggest cost of growing corn, from both a financial and environmental perspective. Breeding corn lines more efficient at scavenging for the nutrient would be a major development.” 

    The U.S. Department of Energy, the Howard G Buffett Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture supported this research. 

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  • Research reveals plant roots change shape and branch out for water

    Research reveals plant roots change shape and branch out for water

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    Newswise — Researchers have discovered how plant roots adapt their shape to maximise their uptake of water, pausing branching when they lose contact with water and only resuming once they reconnect with moisture, ensuring they can survive even in the driest conditions.

    Plant scientists from the University of Nottingham have discovered a novel water sensing mechanism that they have called ‘Hydro-Signalling’, which shows how hormone movement is linked with water fluxes. The findings have been published today in Science.

    Water is the rate-limiting molecule for life on earth. The devastating impact of climate change is enhancing the effects of water stress on global agriculture. Climate change is causing rainfall patterns to become more erratic, impacting rain-fed crops in particular.

    Roots play a critical role to reduce the impact of water stress on plants by adapting their shape (such as branching or growing deeper) to secure more water. Discovering how plant roots sense and adapt to water stress is vital importance for helping ‘future proof’ crops to enhance their climate resilience.

    Using X-ray micro-CT imaging researchers were able to reveal that roots alter their shape in response to external moisture availability by linking the movement of water with plant hormone signals that control root branching. 

    The study provides critical information about the key genes and processes controlling root branching in response to limited water availability, helping scientists design novel approaches to manipulate root architecture to enhance water capture and yield in crops.

    Dr. Poonam Mehra, postdoctoral fellow, from the School of Biosciences is one of the lead authors and explains: “When roots are in contact with moisture, a key hormone signal (auxin) moves inwards with water, triggering new root branches. However, when roots lose contact with moisture, they rely on internal water sources that mobilises another hormone signal (ABA) outwards, which acts to block the inwards movement of the branching signal. This simple, yet elegant mechanism enables plant roots to fine tune their shape to local conditions and optimize foraging.”

    Professor Malcolm Bennett, co-lead on the research adds: “Our plant research is vitally important for understanding how we can futureproof crops and find ways to ensure successful crop yields even in the most challenging climates. We are already experiencing a hotter climate and designing plants that can still access water in these conditions is vital and this research is an all important step in understanding how to do this”. He continued: “These new discoveries were only possible because of the cutting-edge tools and collaborative approaches of the authors, which involved an international team of scientists based in the UK, Belgium, Sweden, USA and Israel.’”

    The research was funded by BBSRC, EMBO and ERC. 

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  • New study finds our ancient relatives were not so simple after all

    New study finds our ancient relatives were not so simple after all

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    Newswise — Researchers at the University of Nottingham have solved an important piece of the animal evolution puzzle, after a new study revealed that our ancient ancestors were more complex than originally thought. 

    Way back in our distant evolutionary history, animals underwent a major innovation. They evolved to have a left and right side, and two gut openings. This brought about a plethora of significant advantages in terms of propelling themselves directly forward at increased speed through the early seas, from finding food and extracting nutrients to avoiding being eaten themselves. It was such a successful strategy that, today, we share our planet with a huge diversity of other animals with bilateral symmetry and two gut openings just like us humans. They include animals as diverse as starfish, sea cucumbers, elephants, crickets, and snails. They also include an enigmatic group of very simple marine worms called Xenacoelomorphs, who lack many of the complex features of their fancier looking cousins. 

    For years, scientists have debated who is more closely related to who in this diverse collection of bilaterally symmetrical animals. Some experts argue that Xenacoelomorphs mark the first group to branch in that major jump in innovation from animals with circular body plans (e.g. jelly fish and corals) to bilateral symmetry. If this was the case, then the first bilaterian itself was also a very simple animal. Others argued for different placements of Xenacoelomorphs on the family tree.  

    However, a research team, led by Dr Mary O’Connell at the University of Nottingham has found that Xenacoelomorphs branch much later in time. They are not the earliest branch on the bilaterian family tree and their closest relatives are far more complex animals, like star fish. This means that Xenacoelomorphs have lost many of the complex features of their closest relatives, challenging the idea that evolution leads to ever more complex and intricate forms. Instead, the new study shows that loss of features is an important factor in driving evolution.  

    Dr Mary O’Connell, Associate Professor in Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham says: “There are many fundamental questions about the evolution of animals that need to be answered. Many parts of this family tree that are not known or not resolved. But what an exciting time to be an evolutionary biologist with the availability of exquisite genome data from the beautiful diversity of species we currently have on our planet, allowing us to unlock secrets of our most distant past.”  

    The paper, titled ‘Filtering artifactual signal increases support for Xenacoelomorpha and Ambulacraria sister relationship in the animal tree of life’ has been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Current Biology. It details the application of a special phylogenetic technique to help in extracting signal from noise over deep time, showing increased support for Xenacoelomorphs being sister to ambulacraria (e.g. star fish) rather than being the deepest diverging of the bilateria.  

    The research team at the University of Nottingham will now explore other challenging family trees and other connections between genome changes and phenotypic diversity.  

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