Kategori : ENERGY AGENDA NEWS, ENERGY EFFICIENCY NEWS - Tarih : 25 May 2021
Dr. Lecturer Steven Footitt and his team began researching the genetics required to produce “smart plants” resistant to climate change. With the 2-year project supported by the Boğaziçi University Scientific Research Fund (BAP), gene research will reveal how climate change affects the dormancy state that prevents germination in plant seeds. According to Footitt, this will make a great contribution to the production of smart plants, and an important step will be taken in agriculture and food security in Turkey.
Many researches are ongoing at Boğaziçi University on the effects of climate change on agriculture and food security. Among them, Dr. Lecturer The project of its member Steven Footitt and his team aims to pave the way for the production of smart plants that can adapt to climate change by understanding the dormant state in plant seeds with gene research. Answering the questions of the Corporate Communication Office, Footitt, the leader of the research team, says that by focusing on genes that reduce dormancy in seeds, plants can adapt more easily to climate change and adds: we want to make contributions. ”
“EXCESSIVE TEMPERATURE PREVENTS GRINDING”
After his studies in various countries around the world, Dr. Lecturer Steven Footitt, its member, states that extreme temperatures due to climate change can put the seeds into a second sleep state, preventing germination. Saying that this is actually a survival strategy, the scientist explains this process that may threaten food security in Turkey as follows:
“Plants develop strategies to survive stress events such as extreme heat. Because natural selection has led to the development of mechanisms that help plants tolerate or avoid such harsh conditions. One of these behaviors is the dormancy that occurs in the seeds of many plants, along with the cessation of plant growth. Dormancy triggered after the seeds are dispersed from the parent plant; It can continue to prevent germination even under appropriate water, light and temperature conditions. This dormancy must decrease until the seeds become sensitive to environmental factors that allow germination. But if conditions that prevent germination, such as excessive heat, still persist after seed dispersal, a much deeper secondary dormancy occurs. In this way, seeds can survive in the soil for several years until favorable conditions are established. This is actually a conservation strategy used by most wild plants for survival. This strategy differs between species, depending on the environments in which different plant populations adapt. ”
“GENES THAT PREVENT THE SEED FROM GRINDING WILL BE MAPPED.”
Dr. Steven Footitt and his team aim to solve this dormancy mechanism in seeds with their genetic mapping studies on the “Arabidopsis” plant with high genetic diversity. Emphasizing that this will make great contributions to the development of “smart plants” resistant to climate change, the scientist said, “We will use” Arabidopsis “as a model plant within the scope of the project. This plant has an average lifespan of 30-40 days and a small genome structure of about 25 amplitudes on five chromosomes. The level of genetic diversity in Arabidopsis species is high, making it easier to identify variations in different eco-types caused by climate adaptation. My team and I will map climate-adapted genes that play a role in regulating processes that prevent seed germination by causing the second state of sleep, such as extreme heat. We will examine how genetically different seeds of the same species survive using their dormant state to adapt to climate change. This will make a great contribution to grow plants that are compatible with climate change in the future. “This is also a huge step for agriculture and food security in Turkey.”
“A NEW BREEDING ROOM FOR 186 PLANTS IS ESTABLISHED IN THE NORTH CAMPUS”
It will carry out an intensive laboratory work that will cover plant breeding, harvesting, molecular biology and genetics studies in the Bosphorus. The team will genetically grow plants from 186 different lineages for research, using the newly established plant growing room on the North Campus for this. Stating that special systems were set up for the research project in this room, Footitt said about the facility, “There is a lighting system where we can imitate natural daily temperature and light cycles that we can optimize plant growth. The lighting system here consists of low energy LED lights designed only for plant growth, reducing the carbon footprint ”.
