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Scientists Discover Mutant Rice Variety That Could Thrive on Mars | Weather.com

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Representational Image.

(IANS)

Far into the future, if humans successfully colonise Mars, we could also conjure our favourite rice dishes from the crop grown on the red planet itself! This sounds like stuff from science fiction, but it's not far from reality.

After years of work, scientists have recently identified a gene which, when tweaked, may give rice crops the ability to survive the harsh Martian environment. Planetary scientist Abhilash Ramachandran and his colleagues at the University of Arkansas are to be thanked for this unique discovery.

The researchers set out to explore how rice crops handle the stressors present in the Martian soil. For this, they grew rice in a series of mixtures of regular potting mix and Martian soil simulant sourced from basalt mined from California's Mojave desert.

Martian dirt has fewer nutrients than Earth, but surprisingly, rice plants grew in the Martian soil, albeit with tinier shoots and gangly roots! Further, the scientists reported better growth when they mixed Martian and regular soils and used the mixture for rice cultivation.

But the Martian soil also hosts certain compounds that could be toxic for plants. So, the researchers tried growing different rice plants — one wild variety and two mutant cultivars with resilience against environmental stressors like drought — in simulated Martian dirt with plant toxicant perchlorate that's been detected on Mars.

As expected, no rice crops grew at higher perchlorate concentrations. But one mutant variety showed promising root and shoot growth, and the wild variety managed to sprout roots at lower perchlorate concentrations. These findings suggest tinkering with the SnRK1a gene, which regulates the plant's response to environmental pressures, could potentially improve growth response in Martian regolith.

Considering how pricey it would be to transport food supplies to Mars, working on 'Mars-Suited' rice varieties for our space entourage when humanity finally steps on the red planet is definitely a good idea.

The findings of this study were presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held earlier this month and can be accessed here.

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