Dive Brief:
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A team of plant biologists in Missouri has identified a genetic mechanism controlling the traits that regulate cereal grain production, according to Bakery and Snacks. The study was published in December in The Plant Cell, a scientific journal of The American Society of Plant Biologists.
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While researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center focused on a family of grasses known as Setaria viridis, their findings could apply to increasing the yields of economically important cereal crops and feed stocks such as maize, sorghum, switchgrass and sugarcane, Bakery and Snacks reported.
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"The genetics and genomics tools that are emerging for Setaria enable more rapid dissection of molecular pathways such as this one, and allow us to manipulate them directly in a system that is closely related to the food crops we aim to improve," Andrea Eveland, a center faculty member, said in a release. "It means we are just that much closer to designing and deploying optimal architectures for cereal crops. The prospect of leveraging these findings for improvement of related grasses that are also orphan crop species, such as pearl and foxtail millets, is especially exciting."
Dive Insight:
Lab work by Eveland and her team mapped a genetic locus in the Setaria genome that controls the growth of sterile branches — called bristles — which are produced on the grain-bearing flower clusters of some grass species. They found these sterile bristles are initially programed to be spikelets, or grass-specific structures that produce flowers and grain.
The plant biologists then showed that how a spikelet converts to a bristle is determined early in the flower cluster's development, and is regulated by a class of plant hormones called brassinosteroids (BRs). These BRs modulate a range of physiological processes in plant growth, development and immunity.
Besides converting a sterile structure to a seed-bearing one, researchers found 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, the study noted, including subsistence crops in many developing countries that remain largely untapped for genetic improvement.
While this study's results have important implications for increasing crop yields around the world, much more research would have to be done to determine the commercial applications for those crops food manufacturers are most concerned with: corn, sorghum, rice, wheat and barley.
Meanwhile, food makers and retailers are investing in ways to improve crop output and the food supply. General Mills has put nearly $3 million into researching soil health on wheat farms, specifically on practices such as reduced tillage, growing cover crops in winter and advanced nutrient management — all of which can support soil health and also benefit the environment. Cargill and Walmart teamed up with General Mills in 2016 to research ways to improve soil health and water quality on farms. These companies are well aware that they need healthy soil to maintain a healthy bottom line.
Experts predict there won't be enough food to feed the world by 2050, so scientists and entrepreneurs will continue to seek innovative ways to try and feed the planet’s growing population. However, it's unclear whether hypothetical future increases in crop yields would result in commodity price declines — and whether consumers would eventually see lower costs on the retail end.