New method to maximise food production: study

Scientists have found a new way to dramatically increase crop yields after they discovered a set of gene variations that boost fruit production in tomato plant by as much as 100 per cent.
Plant breeders will be able to combine different gene variants among the set to create an optimal plant architecture for particular varieties and growing conditions.
The set of mutations will enable farmers to maximise yield in tomatoes and potentially many other flowering plants, including staple crops like soybeans.
"Traditionally, plant breeders have relied on natural variation in plant genes to increase yield, but yield gains are plateauing," Associate Professor Zachary Lippman from the Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory (CSHL) in US noted.

"There is an immediate need to find new ways for plant breeders to produce more food," said Lippman.
Worldwide more than 842 million people do not receive adequate nourishment, about 1 person in 8 alive today, researchers said.

The cost of food is expected to increase and hunger is likely to become more widespread as the global population expands to beyond 9 billion by 2050, they said.
In tomatoes and all other flowering plants, the balance between vegetative growth and flowers is controlled by a pair of opposing hormones, called florigen and anti-florigen.
Prior work by Lippman and colleagues showed that a mutation in florigen can shift the balance between vegetative growth and flowering, modifying plant architecture in a way that increases yield.

This suggested that the balance between florigen and anti-florigen might not yet be optimal in tomato plants, despite centuries of breeding with natural variants.
Lippman's team identified an array of new gene mutations that allow, for the first time, a way to fine-tune the balance of florigen to anti-florigen.
This maximises fruit production without compromising the energy from leaves needed to support those fruits.
"We mixed and matched all of the mutations," said Lippman.
"And we were able to produce plants with a broad range of architectures. Together, our collection of mutations forms a powerful toolkit for breeders to pinpoint a new optimum in flowering and architecture that can achieve previously unattainable yield gains," said Lippman.

The study was published in the journal Nature Genetics.