Food crops could soon withstand global climate change with the discovery of Australian scientists of the ability of a grass that can survive extreme desert conditions without water for months or years. A native Australian grass has been found capable to resurrect itself after death due to drought.

Researchers from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) analysed the grass Tripogon loliiformis, a resurrection plant that can withstand desiccation, or being dried out, for long periods of time. The grass can effectively play dead during drought-like conditions by losing its volume and colour.

Tripogon loliiformis tend to remain quite alive despite losing 95 percent of its water content, and is capable to flourish again when provided with water. Scientists have long been trying to understand its resurrection ability.

QUT researchers have found that the grass survives using a combination of sugar manipulation and controlled sacrifice of cells. During droughts, T. loliiformis collects the non-reducing sugar, called trehalose, present in plants.

The sugar helps trigger the process of autophagy, allowing an orderly degradation and recycling of the plant’s cells. Autophagy is a survival mechanism that allows the grass to remove damaged proteins and recycle nutrients, said QUT Professor Sagadevan Mundree.

“The resurrection plant controls the levels of autophagy to prevent death upon drying,” he said. “Presumably, once induced, autophagy promotes desiccation tolerance in the grass, by recycling nutrients and removing cellular toxins to suppress programmed cell death.”

However, Mundree noted that prolonged stress could result in excessive autophagy and death of the plant. However, the study, published in PLOS Genetics, indicates that the findings could deliver a huge impact on the future of crop production.

A way to replicate the ability of the resurrection plant could help develop stress-tolerant crops. This would promote better production of global food crops such as chickpea and rice.

“It’s an important step along a genetic path that we hope will lead to scientists being able to develop more robust crop varieties that can withstand the uncertainty of climate change whilst still producing maximum yields,” said Dr Brett Williams, from the QUT.

Climate change, causing extreme weather events, and the growing global population could significantly affect the sustainability of future crop production. However, resurrection plants, like the T. loliiformis, have a great potential to lead the development of stress tolerant crops.

Contact the writer at feedback@ibtimes.com.au or tell us what you think below

RELATED STORIES