The Race to Create Super-crops

Nature News
by Natasha Gilbert

Old-fashioned breeding techniques are bearing more fruit than genetic engineering in developing hyper-efficient plants.

Jonathan Lynch likes to look beneath the surface. In his quest to breed better crops, the plant physiologist spends a lot of time digging up roots to work out what makes some varieties extremely good at extracting nutrients from the ground. Lynch wants to use this knowledge to develop plants with extra-efficient roots — crops that grow well in the nutrient-starved soils of the developing world. These plants could also reduce the use of fertilizers in richer nations.

Last year, Lynch’s forays into the dirt paid off. He and his team at Pennsylvania State University in University Park reported that they had produced a variety of common bean, or string bean (Phaseolus vulgaris), with a combination of root traits that allows it to take up phosphorus from the soil with improved efficiency. In experimental plots, the plants produced three times the bean yield of typical varieties.

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