An essay published on Nature Biotechnology on August 17 reveals an exciting achievement of Chinese scientists: they have successfully cultivated transgenic crops with an ERECTA gene (henceforth ER) that can resist heat while increase production.

Researchers from Institute of Plant Physiology & Ecology, SIBS, CAS, together contribute to this essay entitled “Overexpression of Receptor-like Kinase ERECTA Improves Thermotolerance in Rice and Tomato”.

According to the essay, while traditional methods for resisting heat are often used at the expense of decreased production, the transgenic rice and tomato in their experiment prove to have broken the spell. “Our findings could contribute to engineering or breeding thermotolerant crops with no growth penalty,” says the essay.

The transgenic tomato in their experiment endured high temperature of 40 degree Celsius, while common tomato would have already withered.

The transgenic procedure is to make the expression of ER in the crops more apparent, or in the biotechnology term, to realize “overexpression” of ER.

Exactly how ER functions to form the protein that helps crops resist heat remains yet unknown.