Imagine your lawn always being green and never needing to be mowed. The Salk Institute for Biological Studies is aiming for this goal, with scientists mapping out the hormonal signaling processes that regulate plant height.
“By controlling this process, we believe we can manage the yield and height of plant species“, said Joanne Chory, a member of the research team.
Chory and her colleagues have been studying a group of plant hormones known as brassinosteroids.
“Without them, plants are just stunted trees, with tiny vascular systems and roots, unable to reproduce“, Chory explained.
The hormones mentioned above have been shown to control cell growth. The research team suggests that rearranging the hormonal signaling chain could compel plants to grow in specific ways.
“We could dwarf weeds and keep them green by limiting brassinosteroids, or increase rice yields by supplementing brassinosteroids in seeds“, Chory announced.
For centuries, humans have controlled the size and other characteristics of plants through selective breeding. Hormonal control will provide a modern solution for achieving even greater advancements.
T. An
