1 00:00:00,840 --> 00:00:05,056 I believe that the secret to producing extremely drought-tolerant crops, 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:08,296 which should go some way to providing food security in the world, 3 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:11,016 lies in resurrection plants, 4 00:00:11,040 --> 00:00:14,176 pictured here, in an extremely droughted state. 5 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,056 You might think that these plants look dead, 6 00:00:17,080 --> 00:00:18,376 but they're not. 7 00:00:18,400 --> 00:00:19,856 Give them water, 8 00:00:19,880 --> 00:00:25,320 and they will resurrect, green up, start growing, in 12 to 48 hours. 9 00:00:26,320 --> 00:00:27,616 Now, why would I suggest 10 00:00:27,640 --> 00:00:32,080 that producing drought-tolerant crops will go towards providing food security? 11 00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:36,936 Well, the current world population is around 7 billion. 12 00:00:36,960 --> 00:00:39,456 And it's estimated that by 2050, 13 00:00:39,480 --> 00:00:42,176 we'll be between 9 and 10 billion people, 14 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,080 with the bulk of this growth happening in Africa. 15 00:00:45,880 --> 00:00:48,336 The food and agricultural organizations of the world 16 00:00:48,360 --> 00:00:51,496 have suggested that we need a 70 percent increase 17 00:00:51,520 --> 00:00:53,696 in current agricultural practice 18 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:54,960 to meet that demand. 19 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:58,416 Given that plants are at the base of the food chain, 20 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:00,760 most of that's going to have to come from plants. 21 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:04,056 That percentage of 70 percent 22 00:01:04,080 --> 00:01:08,296 does not take into consideration the potential effects of climate change. 23 00:01:08,320 --> 00:01:12,560 This is taken from a study by Dai published in 2011, 24 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:15,176 where he took into consideration 25 00:01:15,200 --> 00:01:17,576 all the potential effects of climate change 26 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:19,736 and expressed them -- amongst other things -- 27 00:01:19,760 --> 00:01:24,376 increased aridity due to lack of rain or infrequent rain. 28 00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:26,176 The areas in red shown here, 29 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:28,256 are areas that until recently 30 00:01:28,280 --> 00:01:31,456 have been very successfully used for agriculture, 31 00:01:31,480 --> 00:01:33,880 but cannot anymore because of lack of rainfall. 32 00:01:34,640 --> 00:01:37,560 This is the situation that's predicted to happen in 2050. 33 00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:41,016 Much of Africa, in fact, much of the world, 34 00:01:41,040 --> 00:01:42,936 is going to be in trouble. 35 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:46,616 We're going to have to think of some very smart ways of producing food. 36 00:01:46,640 --> 00:01:49,936 And preferably among them, some drought-tolerant crops. 37 00:01:49,960 --> 00:01:52,016 The other thing to remember about Africa is 38 00:01:52,040 --> 00:01:54,840 that most of their agriculture is rainfed. 39 00:01:56,080 --> 00:01:59,536 Now, making drought-tolerant crops is not the easiest thing in the world. 40 00:01:59,560 --> 00:02:01,976 And the reason for this is water. 41 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:05,136 Water is essential to life on this planet. 42 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:09,295 All living, actively metabolizing organisms, 43 00:02:09,320 --> 00:02:11,376 from microbes to you and I, 44 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:13,736 are comprised predominately of water. 45 00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,296 All life reactions happen in water. 46 00:02:16,320 --> 00:02:19,336 And loss of a small amount of water results in death. 47 00:02:19,360 --> 00:02:21,416 You and I are 65 percent water -- 48 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:23,160 we lose one percent of that, we die. 49 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:26,560 But we can make behavioral changes to avoid that. 50 00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:29,496 Plants can't. 51 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:31,136 They're stuck in the ground. 52 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:34,536 And so in the first instance they have a little bit more water than us, 53 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:35,816 about 95 percent water, 54 00:02:35,840 --> 00:02:37,936 and they can lose a little bit more than us, 55 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:40,920 like 10 to about 70 percent, depending on the species, 56 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:43,360 but for short periods only. 57 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:48,856 Most of them will either try to resist or avoid water loss. 58 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:52,816 So extreme examples of resistors can be found in succulents. 59 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,656 They tend to be small, very attractive, 60 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,416 but they hold onto their water at such great cost 61 00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:00,440 that they grow extremely slowly. 62 00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:06,016 Examples of avoidance of water loss are found in trees and shrubs. 63 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:07,616 They send down very deep roots, 64 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:09,336 mine subterranean water supplies 65 00:03:09,360 --> 00:03:11,816 and just keep flushing it through them at all times, 66 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:13,696 keeping themselves hydrated. 67 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:15,696 The one on the right is called a baobab. 68 00:03:15,720 --> 00:03:17,776 It's also called the upside-down tree, 69 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:21,576 simply because the proportion of roots to shoots is so great 70 00:03:21,600 --> 00:03:24,296 that it looks like the tree has been planted upside down. 71 00:03:24,320 --> 00:03:27,560 And of course the roots are required for hydration of that plant. 72 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:33,280 And probably the most common strategy of avoidance is found in annuals. 73 00:03:33,840 --> 00:03:37,016 Annuals make up the bulk of our plant food supplies. 74 00:03:37,040 --> 00:03:38,736 Up the west coast of my country, 75 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:42,296 for much of the year you don't see much vegetation growth. 76 00:03:42,320 --> 00:03:44,976 But come the spring rains, you get this: 77 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:46,240 flowering of the desert. 78 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:48,856 The strategy in annuals, 79 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,240 is to grow only in the rainy season. 80 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:54,256 At the end of that season they produce a seed, 81 00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,096 which is dry, eight to 10 percent water, 82 00:03:57,120 --> 00:03:58,776 but very much alive. 83 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:01,696 And anything that is that dry and still alive, 84 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:03,200 we call desiccation-tolerant. 85 00:04:03,840 --> 00:04:05,256 In the desiccated state, 86 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:07,936 what seeds can do is lie in extremes of environment 87 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:09,616 for prolonged periods of time. 88 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:11,856 The next time the rainy season comes, 89 00:04:11,880 --> 00:04:13,376 they germinate and grow, 90 00:04:13,400 --> 00:04:15,280 and the whole cycle just starts again. 91 00:04:16,120 --> 00:04:20,176 It's widely believed that the evolution of desiccation-tolerant seeds 92 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:22,376 allowed the colonization and the radiation 93 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:25,920 of flowering plants, or angiosperms, onto land. 94 00:04:26,960 --> 00:04:30,120 But back to annuals as our major form of food supplies. 95 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:35,520 Wheat, rice and maize form 95 percent of our plant food supplies. 96 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:38,016 And it's been a great strategy 97 00:04:38,040 --> 00:04:41,216 because in a short space of time you can produce a lot of seed. 98 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:43,860 Seeds are energy-rich so there's a lot of food calories, 99 00:04:43,884 --> 00:04:47,804 you can store it in times of plenty for times of famine, 100 00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:49,720 but there's a downside. 101 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:51,936 The vegetative tissues, 102 00:04:51,960 --> 00:04:54,136 the roots and leaves of annuals, 103 00:04:54,160 --> 00:04:55,416 do not have much 104 00:04:55,440 --> 00:04:59,536 by way of inherent resistance, avoidance or tolerance characteristics. 105 00:04:59,560 --> 00:05:00,856 They just don't need them. 106 00:05:00,880 --> 00:05:02,296 They grow in the rainy season 107 00:05:02,320 --> 00:05:05,696 and they've got a seed to help them survive the rest of the year. 108 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:08,416 And so despite concerted efforts in agriculture 109 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:10,976 to make crops with improved properties 110 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:13,176 of resistance, avoidance and tolerance -- 111 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:15,096 particularly resistance and avoidance 112 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,016 because we've had good models to understand how those work -- 113 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:20,376 we still get images like this. 114 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:21,856 Maize crop in Africa, 115 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:23,296 two weeks without rain 116 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:24,520 and it's dead. 117 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:26,800 There is a solution: 118 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:28,760 resurrection plants. 119 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:33,096 These plants can lose 95 percent of their cellular water, 120 00:05:33,120 --> 00:05:36,976 remain in a dry, dead-like state for months to years, 121 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:38,736 and give them water, 122 00:05:38,760 --> 00:05:40,640 they green up and start growing again. 123 00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:44,856 Like seeds, these are desiccation-tolerant. 124 00:05:44,880 --> 00:05:49,000 Like seeds, these can withstand extremes of environmental conditions. 125 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:51,776 And this is a really rare phenomenon. 126 00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:56,176 There are only 135 flowering plant species that can do this. 127 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:57,616 I'm going to show you a video 128 00:05:57,640 --> 00:06:00,256 of the resurrection process of these three species 129 00:06:00,280 --> 00:06:01,496 in that order. 130 00:06:01,520 --> 00:06:02,776 And at the bottom, 131 00:06:02,800 --> 00:06:05,536 there's a time axis so you can see how quickly it happens. 132 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:46,200 (Applause) 133 00:06:50,240 --> 00:06:51,776 Pretty amazing, huh? 134 00:06:51,800 --> 00:06:56,016 So I've spent the last 21 years trying to understand how they do this. 135 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:58,440 How do these plants dry without dying? 136 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:01,856 And I work on a variety of different resurrection plants, 137 00:07:01,880 --> 00:07:04,296 shown here in the hydrated and dry states, 138 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:05,776 for a number of reasons. 139 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:08,656 One of them is that each of these plants serves as a model 140 00:07:08,680 --> 00:07:11,056 for a crop that I'd like to make drought-tolerant. 141 00:07:11,080 --> 00:07:14,016 So on the extreme top left, for example, is a grass, 142 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:16,296 it's called Eragrostis nindensis, 143 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:18,696 it's got a close relative called Eragrostis tef -- 144 00:07:18,720 --> 00:07:20,736 a lot of you might know it as "teff" -- 145 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:22,496 it's a staple food in Ethiopia, 146 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:23,776 it's gluten-free, 147 00:07:23,800 --> 00:07:26,816 and it's something we would like to make drought-tolerant. 148 00:07:26,840 --> 00:07:29,256 The other reason for looking at a number of plants, 149 00:07:29,280 --> 00:07:30,656 is that, at least initially, 150 00:07:30,680 --> 00:07:32,936 I wanted to find out: do they do the same thing? 151 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:34,656 Do they all use the same mechanisms 152 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,256 to be able to lose all that water and not die? 153 00:07:37,280 --> 00:07:39,976 So I undertook what we call a systems biology approach 154 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:42,176 in order to get a comprehensive understanding 155 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:44,216 of desiccation tolerance, 156 00:07:44,240 --> 00:07:45,696 in which we look at everything 157 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,632 from the molecular to the whole plant, ecophysiological level. 158 00:07:48,657 --> 00:07:50,291 For example we look at things like 159 00:07:50,316 --> 00:07:52,513 changes in the plant anatomy as they dried out 160 00:07:52,537 --> 00:07:53,776 and their ultrastructure. 161 00:07:53,800 --> 00:07:56,976 We look at the transcriptome, which is just a term for a technology 162 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,416 in which we look at the genes 163 00:07:58,440 --> 00:08:00,856 that are switched on or off, in response to drying. 164 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:04,096 Most genes will code for proteins, so we look at the proteome. 165 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,520 What are the proteins made in response to drying? 166 00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,376 Some proteins would code for enzymes which make metabolites, 167 00:08:11,400 --> 00:08:12,976 so we look at the metabolome. 168 00:08:13,000 --> 00:08:16,296 Now, this is important because plants are stuck in the ground. 169 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:20,416 They use what I call a highly tuned chemical arsenal 170 00:08:20,440 --> 00:08:23,856 to protect themselves from all the stresses of their environment. 171 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:25,376 So it's important that we look 172 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:27,840 at the chemical changes involved in drying. 173 00:08:28,520 --> 00:08:31,176 And at the last study that we do at the molecular level, 174 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:32,456 we look at the lipidome -- 175 00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:34,535 the lipid changes in response to drying. 176 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:35,816 And that's also important 177 00:08:35,840 --> 00:08:38,655 because all biological membranes are made of lipids. 178 00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:41,256 They're held as membranes because they're in water. 179 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:43,520 Take away the water, those membranes fall apart. 180 00:08:44,240 --> 00:08:47,280 Lipids also act as signals to turn on genes. 181 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:50,896 Then we use physiological and biochemical studies 182 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:54,136 to try and understand the function of the putative protectants 183 00:08:54,160 --> 00:08:57,096 that we've actually discovered in our other studies. 184 00:08:57,120 --> 00:08:59,296 And then use all of that to try and understand 185 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,640 how the plant copes with its natural environment. 186 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,816 I've always had the philosophy that I needed a comprehensive understanding 187 00:09:07,840 --> 00:09:10,096 of the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance 188 00:09:10,120 --> 00:09:13,960 in order to make a meaningful suggestion for a biotic application. 189 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:16,656 I'm sure some of you are thinking, 190 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:17,936 "By biotic application, 191 00:09:17,960 --> 00:09:20,880 does she mean she's going to make genetically modified crops?" 192 00:09:22,240 --> 00:09:23,936 And the answer to that question is: 193 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:26,341 depends on your definition of genetic modification. 194 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:30,016 All of the crops that we eat today, wheat, rice and maize, 195 00:09:30,040 --> 00:09:33,256 are highly genetically modified from their ancestors, 196 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:35,256 but we don't consider them GM 197 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:37,920 because they're being produced by conventional breeding. 198 00:09:38,880 --> 00:09:42,656 If you mean, am I going to put resurrection plant genes into crops, 199 00:09:42,680 --> 00:09:43,976 your answer is yes. 200 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,136 In the essence of time, we have tried that approach. 201 00:09:47,160 --> 00:09:50,016 More appropriately, some of my collaborators at UCT, 202 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:51,976 Jennifer Thomson, Suhail Rafudeen, 203 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:53,616 have spearheaded that approach 204 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:55,593 and I'm going to show you some data soon. 205 00:09:57,200 --> 00:10:01,216 But we're about to embark upon an extremely ambitious approach, 206 00:10:01,240 --> 00:10:04,696 in which we aim to turn on whole suites of genes 207 00:10:04,720 --> 00:10:07,416 that are already present in every crop. 208 00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:10,345 They're just never turned on under extreme drought conditions. 209 00:10:10,800 --> 00:10:12,256 I leave it up to you to decide 210 00:10:12,280 --> 00:10:14,233 whether those should be called GM or not. 211 00:10:15,560 --> 00:10:19,016 I'm going to now just give you some of the data from that first approach. 212 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,296 And in order to do that 213 00:10:20,320 --> 00:10:22,976 I have to explain a little bit about how genes work. 214 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,256 So you probably all know 215 00:10:24,280 --> 00:10:26,336 that genes are made of double-stranded DNA. 216 00:10:26,360 --> 00:10:28,296 It's wound very tightly into chromosomes 217 00:10:28,320 --> 00:10:31,480 that are present in every cell of your body or in a plant's body. 218 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:35,160 If you unwind that DNA, you get genes. 219 00:10:35,840 --> 00:10:38,296 And each gene has a promoter, 220 00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:40,696 which is just an on-off switch, 221 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:42,136 the gene coding region, 222 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:43,416 and then a terminator, 223 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:47,040 which indicates that this is the end of this gene, the next gene will start. 224 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:50,616 Now, promoters are not simple on-off switches. 225 00:10:50,640 --> 00:10:53,336 They normally require a lot of fine-tuning, 226 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:57,400 lots of things to be present and correct before that gene is switched on. 227 00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:01,296 So what's typically done in biotech studies 228 00:11:01,320 --> 00:11:03,136 is that we use an inducible promoter, 229 00:11:03,160 --> 00:11:04,736 we know how to switch it on. 230 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:06,776 We couple that to genes of interest 231 00:11:06,800 --> 00:11:09,480 and put that into a plant and see how the plant responds. 232 00:11:10,120 --> 00:11:12,696 In the study that I'm going to talk to you about, 233 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:15,176 my collaborators used a drought-induced promoter, 234 00:11:15,200 --> 00:11:17,616 which we discovered in a resurrection plant. 235 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,776 The nice thing about this promoter is that we do nothing. 236 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:22,880 The plant itself senses drought. 237 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:28,696 And we've used it to drive antioxidant genes from resurrection plants. 238 00:11:28,720 --> 00:11:30,576 Why antioxidant genes? 239 00:11:30,600 --> 00:11:33,656 Well, all stresses, particularly drought stress, 240 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:35,976 results in the formation of free radicals, 241 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,336 or reactive oxygen species, 242 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,080 which are highly damaging and can cause crop death. 243 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:44,280 What antioxidants do is stop that damage. 244 00:11:45,360 --> 00:11:49,256 So here's some data from a maize strain that's very popularly used in Africa. 245 00:11:49,280 --> 00:11:52,576 To the left of the arrow are plants without the genes, 246 00:11:52,600 --> 00:11:53,856 to the right -- 247 00:11:53,880 --> 00:11:55,936 plants with the antioxidant genes. 248 00:11:55,960 --> 00:11:57,776 After three weeks without watering, 249 00:11:57,800 --> 00:12:00,280 the ones with the genes do a hell of a lot better. 250 00:12:01,720 --> 00:12:03,056 Now to the final approach. 251 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:06,616 My research has shown that there's considerable similarity 252 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:11,056 in the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in seeds and resurrection plants. 253 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:12,496 So I ask the question, 254 00:12:12,520 --> 00:12:13,960 are they using the same genes? 255 00:12:14,480 --> 00:12:16,736 Or slightly differently phrased, 256 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:21,256 are resurrection plants using genes evolved in seed desiccation tolerance 257 00:12:21,280 --> 00:12:22,536 in their roots and leaves? 258 00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:24,616 Have they retasked these seed genes 259 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:26,680 in roots and leaves of resurrection plants? 260 00:12:27,760 --> 00:12:29,616 And I answer that question, 261 00:12:29,640 --> 00:12:32,056 as a consequence of a lot of research from my group 262 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:35,616 and recent collaborations from a group of Henk Hilhorst in the Netherlands, 263 00:12:35,640 --> 00:12:37,216 Mel Oliver in the United States 264 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:39,840 and Julia Buitink in France. 265 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:41,296 The answer is yes, 266 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:44,176 that there is a core set of genes that are involved in both. 267 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,616 And I'm going to illustrate this very crudely for maize, 268 00:12:47,640 --> 00:12:50,056 where the chromosomes below the off switch 269 00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:53,655 represent all the genes that are required for desiccation tolerance. 270 00:12:53,680 --> 00:12:57,936 So as maize seeds dried out at the end of their period of development, 271 00:12:57,960 --> 00:12:59,320 they switch these genes on. 272 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:03,576 Resurrection plants switch on the same genes 273 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:05,256 when they dry out. 274 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:07,056 All modern crops, therefore, 275 00:13:07,080 --> 00:13:09,136 have these genes in their roots and leaves, 276 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:10,896 they just never switch them on. 277 00:13:10,920 --> 00:13:12,880 They only switch them on in seed tissues. 278 00:13:13,440 --> 00:13:15,176 So what we're trying to do right now 279 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:17,816 is to understand the environmental and cellular signals 280 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,280 that switch on these genes in resurrection plants, 281 00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:23,040 to mimic the process in crops. 282 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:25,416 And just a final thought. 283 00:13:25,440 --> 00:13:27,656 What we're trying to do very rapidly 284 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:31,496 is to repeat what nature did in the evolution of resurrection plants 285 00:13:31,520 --> 00:13:33,360 some 10 to 40 million years ago. 286 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,656 My plants and I thank you for your attention. 287 00:13:36,680 --> 00:13:42,915 (Applause)