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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110425173844.htm
Understanding How Crops Deal With Stress — Yield’s Biggest Enemy
ScienceDaily (Apr. 25, 2011) — Like people, plants experience stress. And also, like people, the response to that stress can determine success.
People can exercise, or rest, or talk about the problem.
For plants, ways to deal with stress are internal. And ISU researchers are trying to understand how they do it.
Stephen Howell is a professor of genetics, development and cell biology and former director of the Plant Sciences Institute at ISU. His research is featured in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“We’ve discovered a new arm of the pathway by which plants activate a response to environmental stress,” he said.
Adverse environmental conditions, such as drought, flood, heat and other stresses, affect yield more than crop pests and diseases. Finding a way to maintain high yields for plants under stress is a goal of plant breeders and other agriculture stakeholders, said Howell.
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