Sunflower gene spliced into soybean to boost yield

Researchers in Argentina have isolated a drought-resistant sunflower gene and spliced it into soy, bolstering hopes for improved yields as the South American agricultural powerhouse grapples with global warming.

Raquel Chan's team identified the HAHB4 gene that makes sunflowers resist dry conditions and implanted it in rockcress flowering plants known as arabidopsis, whose resistance to drought increased considerably.

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Once HAHB4 was artificially inserted in soy, wheat or corn, yields increased between 10 and 100 percent, depending on the crop's quality and local conditions.

"The tougher the environment, the more advantageous the transgenic plant," said Chan, who heads the Agrobiotechnology Institute at the National University of the Coast. She said the genetically modified crops also performed better in salty soil and, she suspected, in other arduous conditions.

http://www.france24.com/en/20120427-sunflower-gene-spliced-soybean-boost-yield