Creating Drought Resistant Crops

Scientists have created a synthetic chemical called pyrabactin that helps plants protect themselves from drought conditions. Pyrabactin parallels a natural stress hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), which plants already have small amounts of in their systems. But commercial extractions of ABA are expensive to produce and very sensitive to light. Pyrabactin does not suffer from any of these defects. Here is it how it works:

A receptor is a protein molecule in a cell to which mobile signaling molecules – such as ABA or pyrabactin, each of which turns on stress-signaling pathways in plants – may attach. Usually at the top of a signaling pathway, the receptor functions like a boss relaying orders to the team below that then proceeds to execute particular decisions in the cell.

Each receptor is equipped with a pocket, akin to a padlock, in which a chemical, like pyrabactin, can dock into, operating like a key. Even though the receptor pockets appear to be fairly similar in structure, subtle differences distinguish a pocket from its peers. The result is that while ABA, a product of evolution, can fit neatly in any of these pockets, pyrabactin is less successful. Still, pyrabactin, by being partially effective (it works better on seeds than on plant parts), serves as a leading molecule for devising new chemicals for controlling stress tolerance in plants.

Innovations Report: “Plant scientists move closer to making any crop drought-tolerant”