Who needs rain?

摘要

The first generation of GM crops was created by a "one size fits all" approach. Biologists took a single gene for, say, herbicide resistance and stuck it in whatever plant they wanted to alter. When it conies to dealing with drought, however, this crude approach won't do. There are several ways to help plants tolerate drought. One is to enable them to survive dehydration, for instance, by boosting production of a sugar called trehalose. This is the secret of desert-living "resurrection plants".