Switching off plant ageing to feed the world

A new development that could control the life cycle of plants could solve the problem of how to feed nine billion people by 2050.

Researchers at the University of Münster and Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology in Germany have identified key regulatory genes in plants that ‘switch off’ flowering, allowing plants to live longer, grow faster and become bigger.

The researchers made the breakthrough after discovering a mutant tobacco plant that shows permanent vegetative growth, no ageing, evergreen leaves and late or no flowering.

Analysis revealed that the plant has a special protein which inhibits the flowering process. The result is a plant which can grow up to 8 m, compared to a normal size of 1.5 m. It also has around 120 leaves, compared to 20 in a normal variety.

The discovery creates a new approach to farming and is an alternative to genetically modified (GM) foods and traditional methods of improving crop varieties.

The chemical engineering potential of Münster and Fraunhofer’s work resulted in them being highly commended at the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Annual Awards for Innovation and Excellence.

“The UN estimates that about 80% of required increased food supply will need to come from improvements in productivity, such as higher crop yields. Pressures on land use are also predicted to increase with a net expansion of arable land of about 70 million hectares,” said IChemE’s chief executive, David Brown.

“The teams at Munster and Fraunhofer are helping to meet this challenge with their innovative work, which creates a new way to produce economically stable food supplies as population growth puts increasing pressure on valuable resources.

“The development is also significant in other ways. The cultivation of high-biomass crops could be a valuable source of sustainable energy and help reduce tensions over land use between biofuel and food production.”