‘Stay green’ DNA helps crops in drought
Barley is an important cereal crop grown during winter/spring in dryland areas of the world for both food and feed. Image: PaulGrecaud/iStockphoto Scientists have pinpointed the ‘stay green' DNA in barley in new research that may help farmers to grow better crops in areas of drought, heat and salinity.In an international collaboration, researchers studied a set of 292 barley accessions from the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) in Aleppo, Syria. The accessions were collected from 35 countries in six geographic regions including Africa, Middle East Asia, North East Asia, Arabian Peninsula, Australia and Europe.The collaboration was between The University of Western Australia's Institute of Agriculture and researchers in China, the United States and Syria.Using a molecular biology technique known as EcoTILLING that allows direct identification of natural mutations in specific genes, the researchers were able to identify 23 DNA sequence variations, 17 of which occurred in the...