UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. -- While most farmers consider viruses and fungi potential threats to their crops, these microbes can help wild plants adapt to extreme conditions, according to a Penn State virologist.
Discovering how microbes collaborate to improve the hardiness of plants is a key to sustainable agriculture that can help meet increasing food demands, in addition to avoiding possible conflicts over scare resources, said Marilyn Roossinck, professor of plant pathology and environmental microbiology, and biology.
"It's a security issue," Roossinck said. "The amount of arable land is shrinking as cities are growing, and climate change is also affecting our ability to grow enough food and food shortages can lead to unrest and wars."
Population growth makes this research important as well, Roossinck added.
"The global population is heading toward 9 billion and incidents of drought like we had recently are all concerns," said Roossinck. "We need to start taking this seriously."
Roossinck, who reports on the findings today (Feb. 17) at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Boston, said that she and her colleagues found an example of a collaboration between plants and viruses that confer drought tolerance to many different crop plants.
The researchers tested four different viruses and several different plants, including crops such as rice, tomato, squash and beets, and showed that the viruses increased the plants' ability to tolerate drought. Virus infection also provided cold tolerance in some cases.
A leafy plant, related to a common weed known as lamb's quarter, was also infected with a virus that caused a local infection. The infection was enough to boost the plant's drought tolerance and may mean that the virus does not have to actively replicate in the cells where the resistance to drought occurs, according to Roossinck.
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| Contact: Matthew Swayne mls29@psu.edu 814-865-9481 Penn State Source:Eurekalert |
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