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The race to create super-crops

Nature volume 533, pages 308–310 (2016)Cite this article

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23 May 2016 This story failed to make it clear that Jonathan Lynch was joking when he suggested that students should “take acid”. The text has been updated.

A Correction to this article was published on 31 May 2016

This article has been updated

Old-fashioned breeding techniques are bearing more fruit than genetic engineering in developing hyper-efficient plants.

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Change history

  • 18 May 2016

    The picture caption for the computer model of roots wrongly identified the plant as maize instead of bean. The caption has been corrected.

  • 23 May 2016

    This story gave the wrong figure for the amount of improved soya bean planted in China — it is 67,000 hectares not 1 million hectares. The text has been corrected.

  • 23 May 2016

    This story failed to make it clear that Jonathan Lynch was joking when he suggested that students should “take acid”. The text has been updated.

References

  1. Miguel, M. A., Postma, J. A. & Lynch, J. P. Plant Physiol. 167, 1430–1439 (2015).

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  2. Wang, X., Yan, X. & Liao, H. Ann. Bot. 106, 215–222 (2010).

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  3. Zhan, A. & Lynch, J. P. J. Exp. Bot. 66, 2055–2065 (2015).

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  4. Zhan, A., Schneider, H. & Lynch. J. P. Plant Physiol. 168, 1603–1615 (2015).

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  5. Good, A. G. et al. Can. J. Bot. 85, 252–262 (2007).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Natasha Gilbert is a writer in Washington DC.,

    Natasha Gilbert

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  1. Natasha Gilbert
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Related external links

The Roots Lab

Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique

CIMMYT Improved Maize for Africa Soils project

CIMMYT Drought Tolerant Maize for Africa project

Arcadia Biosciences

CSIRO

Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics

DuPont Pioneer

Monsanto

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Gilbert, N. The race to create super-crops. Nature 533, 308–310 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/533308a

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