Gene promises key to crop cold resistance
Michigan State UniversityFarmers one day may be able to flip the molecular switch that makes plants tolerate freezing temperatures, thanks to new insight Michigan State University scientists have gained about plants' mechanisms to cope with cold. According to a report published in the April 3 edition of Science Magazine, molecular geneticist Michael Thomashow and his associates report that increasing a plant's expression of a specific regulatory gene helps throw the plant into cold-coping mode, beefing up its defenses against freezing.