Sept. 1, 2006 — Imagine tomatoes that grow through the chill of winter or a front lawn that doesn't need watering all year.
Genes from microorganisms that survive the freezing Arctic or scalding deep-sea vents are being used to engineer such tough plants so they might suitable for the hostile environment of outer space.
The plants, which someday could be grown in greenhouses on Mars or on a spacecraft, could be used to help purify air and water as well as feed astronauts.
They could also be sowed on Earth as hardy crops or for use in low-maintenance gardens.
"Just think if you didn't have to water your grass for an extra week. That would be a real plus," said Wendy Boss, a professor of plant biology at North Carolina State University.
Boss and Amy Grunden, associate professor of microbiology, and their team have already proven that their approach works at the cellular level.
More recently, they achieved promising results with seeds and seedlings of mustard weed able to withstand hot temperatures.
To make their extreme plants, Boss and Grunden borrowed a gene from a microbe known as Pyrococcus furiosus, which thrives in the boiling waters of shallow and deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
Inserting a gene from a microorganism into a plant is not new.
However, scientists who do it usually change the DNA sequence so that it can be properly read by the plant's cells.
Boss and Grunden skipped that part. Instead they took a chance that the particular gene they chose would work inside the plant.
They were right.
The gene is called superoxide reductase. It creates an enzyme that combats toxic free radicals produced when the microbe encounters stressful conditions.
