Christmas dinners saved by climate change resistant roasties

Christmas dinners of the future have been saved by scientists after they created climate-change resistant roast potatoes.

A team from the University of Illinois and University of Essex has developed a heatwave-surviving spud.

With the adapted plant growing 30% more potatoes when under extreme stress in the field – a milestone achievement.

It is hoped this will help families dependent on the staple crop and safeguard its future in a changing world.

The project is a collaboration from the international Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) project, led by the University of Illinois.

Climate-ready crops

Dr Katherine Meacham-Hensold, who led this work, said: “We need to produce crops that can withstand more frequent and intense heatwave events if we are going to meet the population’s need for food in regions most at risk from reduced yields due to global warming.

“The 30% increase in tuber mass observed in our field trials shows the promise of improving photosynthesis to enable climate-ready crops."

Essex researcher Dr Amanda Cavanagh, from the School of Life Sciences, was an integral part of the project and says the research will help secure the future for Britain’s beloved potatoes.

Dr Cavanagh added: “Our major food crops are under threat from climate change, and our work has now confirmed that strategies to increase thermotolerance will translate from model to food crops.

“For many families, roast potatoes are the best part of a Christmas dinner, and this work goes a long way to protecting them for future generations.

“Away from our festive plates this work could have a huge impact in the developing world and help safeguard crops for the people on the frontline of climate change.”

Tweaking

The potatoes were adapted by tweaking a process called photorespiration, a photosynthetic process that has been shown to reduce the yield of soybean, rice, and vegetable crops by up to 40%.

Photorespiration occurs when a protein called rubisco reacts with an oxygen molecule rather than CO2, which occurs around 25% of the time under ideal conditions but more frequently in high temperatures.

Plants then use a large amount of energy to metabolise the toxic byproduct caused by oxygenation, that could have been used for greater growth.

By adding two genes to the plant the team improved efficiency and boosted the number of potatoes grown.

“Another important feature of this study was the demonstration that our genetic engineering of photosynthesis that produced these yield increases had no impact on the nutritional quality of the potato,” added Professor Don Ort, Robert Emerson Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences and Deputy Director of the RIPE project.

“Food security is not just about the amount of calories that can be produced but we must also consider the quality of the food.”

Multi-location field trials are needed to confirm the team’s findings in varying environments.

And it is hoped the method could work with other root tuber crops like cassava, a staple food in Sub-Saharan African countries, expected to be heavily impacted by rising global temperature.