Quantcast
ZME Science
  • CoronavirusNEW
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
ZME Science

No Result
View All Result
ZME Science
No Result
View All Result
Home Science Agriculture

How the pineapple might help crops use less water

The pineapple is the second most grown fruit crop behind bananas, with 85 countries producing about 25 million metric tons each year. It's sweet, exotic, tasty. Most people love it. But there's more to the pineapple than meets the eye. It's one of the most drought resistant crops out there, and scientists have now finally identified the genes that make the pineapple so resilient. By genetically engineering similar crops that share a genetic history with the pineapple it's possible to lend its drought resistance, and thus help curb the stress these face at the hand of global warming.

Tibi Puiu by Tibi Puiu
November 4, 2015
in Agriculture, News

The pineapple is the second most grown fruit crop behind bananas, with 85 countries producing about 25 million metric tons each year. It’s sweet, exotic, tasty. Most people love it. But there’s more to the pineapple than meets the eye. It’s one of the most drought resistant crops out there, and scientists have now finally identified the genes that make the pineapple so resilient. By genetically engineering similar crops that share a genetic history with the pineapple it’s possible to lend its drought resistance, and thus help curb the stress these face at the hand of global warming.

pineapple
Image: Pixabay

Although largely everyone in the world largely refers to the fruit as “ananas”, the first English speaking settlers called it the pineapple due to its resemblance with a pine cone. Christopher Columbus brought this native of South America back to Europe as one of the exotic prizes of the New World. It’s thought, however, that the pineapple was first domesticated about 6,000 years ago in what is now southwest Brazil and eastern Paraguay.

Like most plants, the ancestors of the pineapple went though various genome doubling. Tracking the remnants of these genome duplications proved to be the scope of the researchers at the University of Illinois. The team sequenced the entire genome of the pineapple, along with certain grasses, and found evidence of two whole-genome duplications in the tropical fruit’s history. The sequencing also validated previous findings of three such duplications in grasses. The most important findings have to do with how the pineapple performs photosynthesis.

In photosynthesis — the most important chemical process on Earth (to life at least) — plants harvest sunlight and create carbohydrate molecules. Not all plants perform photosynthesis in the same way. There are actually types of photosynthesis: C3 photosynthesis, C4 photosynthesis, and CAM photosynthesis – each with its advantages and drawbacks.

Alex Fallano, slideshare

The pineapple uses CAM photosynthesis, along with 10,000 other plant species, while most crops use C3 photosynthesis. What makes CAM pretty amazing is that it can do the same job as C3 with five times less water, meaning CAM plants can grow in dry, marginal lands that are unsuited for most crop plants. In the context of changing climates, rising surface temperature and water shortages, lending some CAM traits to C3 plants might prove extremely helpful to securing the global food supply.

Get more science news like this...

Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40,000 subscribers can't be wrong.

   

University of Illinois plant biology professor Ray Ming and colleagues found that the genes that contribute to CAM photosynthesis are regulated by the plant’s circadian rhythm. This makes sense, since empirically, the pores on pineapple leaves close during the day and open at night. This helps the pineapple and all other CAM plants retain most moisture throughout the day. According to Ming, CAM photosynthesis allows the pineapple to absorb and  fix carbon dioxide into molecules during the night, concentrate it in its leaves and release it the next day for photosynthesis.

“Drought is responsible for the majority of global crop loss, so understanding the mechanisms that plants have evolved to survive water stress is vital for engineering drought tolerance in crop species,” the researchers wrote in Nature. “CAM plants can keep their stomata closed during the daytime… greatly reducing water loss.”

Researchers think their best chances might lie with sorghum and rice which share a distant evolutionary history with the pineapple. This might work with other plants as well, considering  all plants “contain the necessary genes for CAM photosynthesis, and the evolution of CAM simply requires rerouting of pre-existing pathways,” the researchers wrote.

 

Tags: pineapple
Tibi Puiu

Tibi Puiu

Tibi is a science journalist and co-founder of ZME Science. He writes mainly about emerging tech, physics, climate, and space. In his spare time, Tibi likes to make weird music on his computer and groom felines.

Follow ZME on social media

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
  • Health
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
  • More

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Coronavirus
  • News
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Animals
    • Renewable Energy
    • Eco tips
    • Environmental Issues
    • Green Living
  • Health
    • Alternative Medicine
    • Anatomy
    • Diseases
    • Genetics
    • Mind & Brain
    • Nutrition
  • Future
  • Space
  • Feature
    • Feature Post
    • Art
    • Great Pics
    • Design
    • Fossil Friday
    • AstroPicture
    • GeoPicture
    • Did you know?
    • Offbeat
  • More
    • About
    • The Team
    • Advertise
    • Contribute
    • Our stance on climate change
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact

© 2007-2019 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.