Giant Tobacco Plants That Stay Young Forever
Date: 14.1.2013
Tobacco plants bloom when they are just a few months old -- and then they die. Now, researchers have located a genetic switch which can keep the plants young for years and which permits unbounded growth. In short, an ideal source of biomass.
The life of tobacco plants is short. They grow for around three to four months, followed by flowering and then die. Their size is also limited, with plants only growing to about one-and-a-half to two meters tall. Now, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Münster have located the tobacco plant's very own fountain of youth, which means they can keep it forever young. The Münster-based researchers discovered a genetic switch which can prevent the plants from change blooming to flowering. This also averts the plants' early change demise to senescence -- and suppresses the factor that halts growth.
The principle is transferable and could be used on other kinds of plants; at the moment, the scientists are working also on potato plants on behalf of a Japanese chemical company. They use their knowledge to get crops to yield a far greater amount of biomass. In the case of potatoes, this means a great deal more starch.
"If we want to guarantee security of supply for foodstuffs and plant-based raw materials, the yield per hectare will have to double by 2050, claims the German Bioeconomy Council. This new technology brings us a great deal nearer to that target," reckons Prüfer.
