LEARNING FROM PLANT
CLIMATE
ADAPTATION
T he climate changes we are enduring are occurring faster than ever in recorded history. Since the 1800s, human activities accelerated natural, long-term temperature shifts, and weather patterns. The most obvious change we are experiencing today is the warming climate. Every year tops the last in terms of the hottest average low temperatures. We are also witnessing more countries with new record-high temperatures each year. Warming temperatures increase the variability in weather patterns, too. Some parts of our planet now witness multiple extreme weather events each year, like snowstorms, rainstorms, flooding, and tropical storms. In the past, these big natural disasters sometimes happened only once every few years. In addition to the direct effects on humans, like loss of life and loss of homes, climate change and extreme weather events also negatively impact plants that serve as sources of food, shelter, and clothing and those that help counteract climate
change themselves. Still, many plants adapt to changing environments, surviving in the face of drought and fluctuating temperatures. It is clear that understanding the genetic changes that facilitate plants’ adaptations is important for imparting climate flexibility to agronomically and environmen- tally useful plant species.
TOWARDS A GENERALIST BIOENERGY GRASS
Switchgrass is a native North American grass with a widespread distribution across the eastern United States, ranging from Canada to southern Mexico. It is a promising candidate for bioenergy, a renewable energy source produced from the biomass of plants. Because of its sweeping distribution across different climate zones, switchgrass presents a good opportu- nity for scientists to investigate climate adaptability. HudsonAlpha’s Genome Sequencing Center (HGSC) , led by faculty investigators Jane Grimwood, PhD , and Jeremy Schmutz , has been studying switchgrass for over a decade.
SWITCHGRASS
HUDSONALPHA INSTITUTE FOR BIOTECHNOLOGY
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