Discovery Should Save Wheat Farmers Millions of Dollars

Discovery Should Save Wheat Farmers Millions of Dollars
Written by: McGill University
Published: October 9,2013
Link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131009201057.htm

Summary:
Every year, the global wheat industry loses as much as one billion dollars due to wheat crops sprouting too early. This is called preharvest sprouting, or PHS, and causes the grain to be of inferior quality. For decades, scientist have been trying to find the gene that causes PHS in order to modify the crops and prevent it. Recently, a team at McGill University a key gene that acts as a switch, determining how the plants react to the conditions of high humidity and large quantities of rainfall by either germinating early or continuing to grow and develop at a normal rate. The key is the way that specifically the ARGONAUTE4_-9 genes are expressed. This discovery will save farmers the money lost from PHS crops, and could be applied to other grains such as barley as well.

Relevance:
This article relates to what we have learned in class about genetically modified organisms and the field of genetic engineering. Specifically, this article was very similar to what we learned about BT corn. BT corn was engineered to have a pesticide produced by the plant, therefore saving farmers money by losing less crops due to insects and not having to spray the crops with pesticide. In both cases, farmers were losing money due to loss of usable crops, and the problem can be potentially solved by genetically modifying the plant.