Molecular biology: how science can respond to the lack of food in the world, says an MIT expert

Climate change has already begun to show the consequences of the increase in the temperature of the planet. Droughts, floods and fires occur in different parts of the world and already affect the different ecosystems and crops, which are left at the mercy of inclement weather and pests that migrate at the rate of global warming. With this scenario, food insecurity would become an expected outcome. However, a scientist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) warned that science could prevent food shortages.

“Understanding how seeds work will be critical to agriculture and food security,” said Mary Gehring, associate professor of biology and member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT. According to the expert, who has been working with seeds for years, it is possible that the potential catastrophic impacts of climate change will continue to worsen. That is why plant epigenetics, which studies heritable changes in gene expression without changes in the sequence (letters or code) of DNA, could become the answer to lack of food.

To put it simply, this specialist seeks to modify plants (without transferring these changes to DNA) so that they can provide a response to the world's need for food as the consequences of climate change on agricultural ecosystems advance. With this in mind, the Gehring Laboratory researcher seeks to discover how to accelerate the production of genetic diversity in plants. The objective is to generate crop populations that adapt and develop resilience to challenging environmental conditions.

In order for plants to adapt better to different climates, they develop genetic variations that lead to phenotypic variations. These changes, for example, allow them to build resistance to floods. Some plants do not have these permanent genetic variations, so researchers estimate that their adaptation during climate change would be jeopardized.

To resolve this doubt, Gehring focused on guandú, also known as beans, green or lard beans, green beans or beans. “Legumes are very interesting because they fix nitrogen, so they create symbiosis with microbes in the soil and fix nitrogen, which can renew soils,” the scientist explained, highlighting the importance of their choice.

He even highlighted the extension of the cultivation of guandúes, since they are eaten in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In this small bean you can find the highest levels of protein detected in a seed, which can become a replacement for meats. Another positive point is that they are perennials, which live between 3 and 5 years, so they can capture carbon dioxide for a longer period of time. But that's not all, they are drought-resistant and collaborate with soil restoration.

“Climate change is not something that any of us can ignore. If one of us has the ability to address it, even in a very small way, it is important to try to achieve it,” said Gehring. In this sense, the scientist focused on this legume to develop a universal technology that allows plants to increase their genetic diversity.

The expert's strategy focused on transposable elements, which in the case of humans represent about 45% of their human genome. “Transposable elements can make multiple copies of themselves, move and alter gene expression. Since humans and plants don't need an infinite number of these copies, there are systems to 'silence' them from being copied,” Gehring explained.

For this reason, the scientist seeks to reverse this “silencing” in plants in order to allow them to move freely throughout the genome, in addition to creating mutations or boosting the expression of a certain gene. Unlike traditional procedures, which caused mutagenesis by a chemical that modified DNA or by the use of X-rays, and their consequent chromosomal ruptures, Gehring seeks to induce a proliferation of transposables through the use of chemicals that inhibit the silencing of transposables elements.

“This is an unexplored territory, where you are changing 50 genes at a time, or 100, instead of just one,” the scientist explained. At the same time he admitted that “it is a rather risky project”. “Climate change is not something that any of us can ignore. If one of us has the capacity to address it, even in a very small way, it is important to try to achieve it,” said Gehring. He concluded: “It is part of our responsibility as scientists to take the knowledge we have and try to apply it to these kinds of problems.”

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