January
9, 2007 Roses flowering at
Christmas and
snow-free ski resorts this winter suggest that climate change is
already with
us and our farmers and growers will need ways of adapting. Scientists
studying
how plants have naturally evolved to cope with the changing seasons of
temperate climates have made a discovery that could help us to breed
new
varieties of crops, able to thrive in a changing climate. The importance of
the discovery
is that it reveals how a species has developed different responses to
different
climates in a short period of time. Researchers at the
John Innes
Centre (JIC), Research leader at
JIC, Professor
Caroline Dean, explains: "We studied levels of the FLC gene in
Arabidopsis
plants from different parts of the world expecting to find regional
variations
that correlated with how much cold was required to switch FLC off. We
discovered that FLC levels in autumn and the rate of reduction during
the early
phases of cold were quite similar in Arabidopsis plants from Professor Dean said:
"It
looks like the variation in this mechanism to adapt the timing of
flowering to
different winter conditions has evolved extremely quickly. We hope that
by
understanding how plants have adapted to different climates it will
give us a
head-start in breeding crops able to cope with global warming." The JIC scientists
worked in
collaboration with a team at the Professor Julia
Goodfellow, BBSRC
Chief Executive, commented: "As well as working to prevent climate
change
we need to be able to harness natural methods to adapt food crops to
cope with
changed and hostile climates around the world. This is an example of
how basic
science can make a practical difference."
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