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An international team of scientists have made a breakthrough which could facilitate the development of flood tolerant crops, widely regarded as one of the key developments for ensuring food security over coming decades. The discovery by researchers at the University of Nottingham and the University of California at Riverside have this week published work on how plants sense low oxygen levels and survive flooding.

The scientists, whose work was published in the journal Nature on Saturday (23rdOctober),  have identified the molecular mechanism plants use to sense low oxygen levels in order to survive flooding. The mechanism controls key proteins in plants causing them to be unstable when oxygen levels are normal. In effect, the protein, which is present in rice and helps with tolerance to submersion, acts as a kind of switch which triggers changes to the plant’s metabolism to protect it.

In recent years, countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Australia and even parts of the UK have fallen victim to catastrophic flooding. The scientists believe crops tolerant to partial or even complete submergence are therefore a milestone on the road to food security. Starved of oxygen, most crops cannot survive a flood for long periods of time, which hits farmers in flood-stricken regions hard. However, it is hoped the Nottingham/ Riverside breakthrough could help plant breeders develop high yielding flood-tolerant crops and could lead to the production of flood-tolerant crops.