Methane forming microorganisms that thrive in the oxygen-poor environment surrounding rice roots converts root exudates into methane. Atmospheric methane is the second most important greenhouse gas after CO2, and is responsible for about 20% of the global warming effect since pre-industrial times.
Now the researchers have succeeded in reducing the amount of methane emitted by changing how much carbon that is allocated to the root system in relation to the amount of carbon allocated to leaves and inflorescences. By adding a gene from barley that affects starch storage, the rice plants allocate more starch to the parts above ground as compared to the root. This is believed to provide a reduced leakage of carbon compounds to the surrounding soil, which in turn results in reduced methane emission.
This is an example of how modern plant breeding can help to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture and at the same time increase food production. The findings are published in the coming issue of the scientific journal Nature.
To the archive...Oliva J et al 2020 Functional Ecology of Forest Disease. Annual review of phytopathology
Schmidt A et al 2020 Selaginella was hyperdiverse already in the Cretaceous. The New phytologist
Ortiz R et al 2020 Oil crops for the future. Current opinion in plant biology
Batista R et al 2019 Auxin regulates endosperm cellularization in . Genes & development
Rojas M et al 2018 World Management of Geminiviruses. Annual review of phytopathology 56:637-677
Parachnowitsch A et al 2018 Evolutionary ecology of nectar. Annals of botany :247-261
Plomion C et al 2018 Oak genome reveals facets of long lifespan. Nature plants :440-452
Liu C & Moschou 2018 Phenotypic novelty by CRISPR in plants. Developmental biology :170-175
Martinez G 2017 tRNAs as primers and inhibitors of retrotransposons. Mobile genetic elements 5 7:1-6
Nakamura M et al 2017 Lost memories of winter - Breaking the FLC silence. Molecular plant :1477-1479
Hafrén A & Hofius 2017 NBR1-mediated antiviral xenophagy in plant immunity. Autophagy :2000-2001
Savolainen O & Lascoux 2016 Genomics: Geography matters for Arabidopsis. Nature :314-315
Mahrez W et al 2016 BRR2a Affects Flowering Time via FLC Splicing. PLoS genetics 4 12
Mehdi S et al 2015 MSI1 functions in a HDAC complex to fine-tune ABA signaling. The Plant cell
Sierra R et al 2015 Evolutionary origins of rhizarian parasites. Molecular biology and evolution
Kamali M et al 2015 Molecular diversity of turncurtoviruses in Iran. Archives of virology
Caruso C & Parachnowitsch 2015 Do Plants Eavesdrop on Floral Scent Signals? Trends in plant science
Stenberg J et al 2015 Optimizing Crops for Biocontrol of Pests and Disease. Trends in plant science
Beuch U et al 2015 Diversity and evolution of potato mop-top virus. Archives of virology :1345-51
Hennig L 2014 Chromatin: domestication of the monsters. Journal of experimental botany 10 65:2767-8
Hennig L 2014 Flowering Highlights. Journal of experimental botany :6479
Stekhoven D et al 2012 Causal stability ranking. Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) 21 28:2819-23
Moschou P & Bozhkov 2012 Separases: biochemistry and function. Physiologia plantarum 1 145:67-76
Caruso A et al 2011 Positive edge effects on forest-interior cryptogams in clear-cuts. PloS one 11 6