GMOs of the Future: Two Recent Studies Reveal Potential of Genetic Technologies

For four years, the state of California has experienced a devastating drought. It's not just a little dry—according to scientists, it's the worst drought in over a millennium, fueled by global climate change. Cali is in such dire straits that Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. just signed two emergency measures to funnel another $1 billion to drought relief and critical water infrastructure projects. No sector is feeling the hit more than Golden State's agricultural industry, where the shortage of water has already cost farmers billions. And California's drought is just the beginning; scientists predict severe and widespread droughts globally in the next 30 to 90 years. Given that the world's farmers account for 75% of our freshwater use, these droughts will cause massive losses in crop production unless the agricultural industry as a whole can find a way to maintain production with less water input. It's a puzzle that genetic engineers are eager to solve. Drought-resistance has been one of the top priorities for genetic engineers, but for decades, frustratingly few viable products have emerged. Monanto's DroughtGard corn is the only commercially available GM designed to withstand dwindling water supplies, and it has only just been released. Now, scientists are unlocking the secrets of efficient water use in plants' genomes. “We now have genetic tools to pre-adapt crops to future, drier climates,” said Peter Franks, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment at the University of Sydney and lead author of a study released this month in New Phytologist. "The goal here is to maintain or improve productivity with less water." And improve it they have. Their recent paper details how the overexpression of one gene — epidermal patterning factor 2 (EPF2) — gave Arabidopsis thalania plants (a kind of mustard green) an edge in drier environments.