Heat-resistant gene could help crops cope with global warming, scientists say

Shanghai scientists have found a gene that provides crops with a higher resistance to heat, offering a potential boon to farmers coping with reduced yields in the face of global warming.

The discovery, made after 10 years of study by the Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, a branch of the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was published on Monday on the website of the scientific journal Nature Biotechnology.

"When the activity of the gene ERECTA is increased, it's like a layer of sunscreen cream applied to the membrane of cells in a plant," said He Zuhua, the team's lead scientist. "Thus the cell membrane will become stronger under heat and the cells are more protected from death."