Scientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSH) in New York have found a technique that boosted corn yields by up to 50% in an initial study. The team of scientists, led by David Jackson, isolated a chemical signal from the leaves of a plant that acts like a brake on stem cell growth to control the plant's growth and development.
In a CSH video, Jackson used an architecture analogy to help illustrate the signal's importance: "Architects make the plans and then they give those plans to a builder who lays down the bricks to make a foundation and the walls," he said. "So imagine those bricks are sending a signal back to the architect to change the way the house should look based on the local environment."
The scientists identified the receptor that receives this braking signal from the leaves, a structure called FEA3. They examined mutant plants where FEA3 didn't work properly and found that without the "brake" receptor, stem cells proliferated and overwhelmed the plant with the production of more kernels than it could support. Smaller ears and lower yielding plants were the result.
To reverse the effect, scientists grew FEA3 mutants with a weakened, but not disabled, receptor. With the "brake" released just slightly, more stem cells grew but not so many as to overwhelm the plant's resources. The resulting plants produced ears with more rows of kernels and a 50% higher yield than non-mutant corn plants.
This newly discovered regulatory pathway is common in most plants. Jackson and his colleagues are hopeful that it could be used to increase yield in many major crops beyond corn. For now, the scientists are testing the weakened FEA3 trait in elite, high-yielding corn hybrids and other crops. Their work is funded by a diverse group: DuPont Pioneer, the National Science Foundation Plant Genome Research Program, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, and the Rural Development Administration of Republic of Korea.