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The University of California and the Department of Energy are working together to explain plant survival under severe drought conditions. The $12.3 million study is being conducted to examine the effects of climate change on California’s agricultural industry.
The study will focus primarily on epigenetics, the study of trait variations caused by environmental factors. They will look specifically at sorghum, a grain that can be found along the Pacific Ocean.
“We hope to tease out the genetics of drought tolerance in sorghum,” said Jeff Dahlberg, a sorghum expert who is managing the testing. “Using sorghum as a model, we expect this research to help us understand drought tolerance in other crops as well.”
“Historically, the genetic manipulation of crops, which has been critical to increasing agricultural productivity, has concentrated on altering the plant’s genetic sequence, encoded in its DNA,” said Peggy Lemaux, plant biologist expert at UC Berkley. “However, recent studies have shown that environmental stresses – in our case drought – can lead to epigenetic changes in a plant’s genetic information. Because epigenetic changes occur without altering the underlying DNA sequence, they allow plants to respond to a changing environment more quickly.”
Researchers expect this study to provide significant insight into how cereal crops will be impacted during future droughts. Their goal is to know how crop production will be impacted in another severe drought
