{"id":2800,"date":"2023-05-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/?p=2800"},"modified":"2023-05-11T11:29:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-11T10:29:00","slug":"stress-memory-in-plants-could-unlock-disease-resistant-crop-breeding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/stress-memory-in-plants-could-unlock-disease-resistant-crop-breeding\/","title":{"rendered":"Stress memory in plants could unlock disease-resistant crop breeding"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Scientists in the UK have discovered a mechanism in plants that can help crops develop long-term, natural immunity to stress caused by insect attacks and disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Researchers at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheffield.ac.uk\/sustainable-food\/news\/stress-memory-plants-could-hold-key-growing-disease-resistant-crops\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">University of Sheffield<\/a> found plants have the ability to remember stress for several weeks, and can prime themselves against future attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings could pave the way for breeding more sustainable crop varieties that require f<a href=\"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/how-does-integrated-pest-management-reduce-chemical-pesticide-use-everything-you-need-to-know-about-ipm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">ewer pesticides or insecticides<\/a>, the scientists said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a study published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41477-022-01313-9#Sec1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\"><em>Nature Plants<\/em><\/a>, researchers investigated the long-term effects of the plant stress hormone, jasmonic acid, on Arabidopsis thaliana, commonly known as thale cress \u2014 a relative cabbage and mustard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When exposed to caterpillars, seedlings treated with jasmonic acid sustained lower levels of damage compared to the control group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The scientists discovered the immune memory of being treated with jasmonic acid is encoded in a family of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/the-complex-truth-about-junk-dna-20210901\/\">\u2018junk DNA\u2019<\/a> \u2014 DNA that doesn\u2019t provide instructions for making plant proteins \u2014 which can prime defence genes for several weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those genes can also be transmitted to newly-developed leaves, providing long-lasting resistance against attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheffield.ac.uk\/biosciences\/people\/academic-staff\/jurriaan-ton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Professor Jurriaan Ton<\/a>, from the university\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheffield.ac.uk\/sustainable-food#:~:text=The%20Institute%20for%20Sustainable%20Food,sciences,%20and%20arts%20and%20humanities.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Institute for Sustainable Food<\/a>, said the study\u2019s findings provide a first model of long-lasting immune memory in plants, offering opportunities to reduce reliance on pesticides and other environmentally-harming inputs \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/farmingfuturefood.com\/feb2025\/emissions-burden-of-pesticide-use-revealed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">a reduction that could have major environmental benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cLike animals, plants have evolved the ability to acquire immunity after recovery from biotic stress, but they use different mechanisms to do so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe findings of the study are not only a huge leap forward in our understanding of how plants &#8216;remember&#8217; the stress from previous attacks, but also uncovers a new epigenetic function of a specific family of junk DNA.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis knowledge could help us to develop new breeding strategies, and select crop varieties for food production that are primed to fight off pests and diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sheffield.ac.uk\/biosciences\/people\/research-staff\/sam-wilkinson\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Dr Sam Wilkinson<\/a>, the study\u2019s lead author, said the research could enhance crop breeding strategies, enabling growers to select plants that have \u2018enhanced immune readiness\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe study has opened the way for us to develop a more precise and adjustable method to introduce beneficial epigenetic variation in plant genomes,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis would not only be of value to crop protection and breeding, but also represent a valuable research tool to explore the complex mechanisms by which epigenetically altered DNA can prime defence genes within and across plant generations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The researchers are now collaborating with an international crop breeding company to investigate if they can exploit other related epigenetic mechanisms to prime crops against diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plants can \u2018remember\u2019 stress, helping them develop an immune memory to protect themselves from future attacks<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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