John Innes barley gene could help plants survive global warming

The gene Ppd-H1, found in barley, controls how the plant responds to the seasonal change in the length of the day, and provides a key to understanding how plants adapt their flowering behaviour to different environments.

In barley, Ppd-H1 controls the activity of another gene, called CO. When the length of day is long enough CO activates one of the key genes that triggers flowering. Naturally occurring variation in Ppd-H1 affects the time of day when CO is activated, thus shifting the time of year that a plant flowers.

Varieties of crops grown in the UK are suited to cool, wet summers. “Later flowering in barley means it has a longer growing period to amass yield,” says David Laurie, leader of the research programme. “If British summers get hotter and drier we will need types of wheat, barley and other crops that flower earlier, like Mediterranean varieties, to beat summer droughts.”

These insights into the flowering of barley will help plant breeders to select variations that are suited to the soils and other environmental factors found in the UK, but will also flower earlier, making them more suited to hotter summers.

“Although our research has been on barley we know from observation that other crops show similar variation in the way they respond to the lengthening of the day in springtime. We are confident we will find equivalent genes in other key crops,” said Laurie.