Carbon dioxide bubbles in Coca Cola. Scientists are figuring out a way to make plants store more CO2 to maximise their growth potential Photo: Spiff/Wikipedia

An alliance between the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences from the University of Helsinki, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and a team from Japan, has led to the discovery of a key gene crucial to the regulation of carbon dioxide uptake in photosynthesis and water evaporation in plants. 

The researchers expect this discovery to have immense impact on the development of drought-tolerant crops; plants, potentially, can be modified to store more CO2 to maximise their growth potential and yield, and the emerging fields of bioenergy and biofuels, under changing climate conditions.

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Research published in the journal Nature, discovered a gene that affects the closing of the ring-like guard cells surrounding the stomata of the plant, thus affecting  the plant’s basic functions such as carbon intake and transpiration.   This discovery, made by the University of Helsinki’s Professor Jaakko Kangasjärvi and his research team, was made by studying a mutation in thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), where the mutant did not react to ozone and other environmental pressures, and this passivity helped identify the stomata regulator.

This breakthrough is expected allow breeders to manipulate crops to in order to make them conform to more rigorous and drier conditions for agricultural production.

By Amnah Ali

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