Jill Farrant: How we can make crops survive without water
جيل فارانت: كيف نجعل المحاصيل قيد الحياة بدون ماء.
Jill Farrant is leading the development of drought-tolerant crops to nourish populations in arid climates. Full bio
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extremely drought-tolerant crops,
التحمل للجفاف،
to providing food security in the world,
في العالم،
droughted state.
that these plants look dead,
start growing, in 12 to 48 hours.
خلال 12 إلى 48 ساعة.
will go towards providing food security?
لتوفير الأمن الغذائي؟
is around 7 billion.
حوالي 7 مليارات.
happening in Africa.
organizations of the world
a 70 percent increase
are at the base of the food chain,
السلسلة الغذائية،
to have to come from plants.
من الزراعة.
the potential effects of climate change.
المناخي.
published in 2011,
of climate change
amongst other things --
or infrequent rain.
used for agriculture,
because of lack of rainfall.
that's predicted to happen in 2050.
in fact, much of the world,
الكثير من العالم،
very smart ways of producing food.
جدا لإنتاج الغذاء
some drought-tolerant crops.
المقاومة للجفاف.
to remember about Africa is
is not the easiest thing in the world.
ليست أسهل شيء في العالم.
metabolizing organisms,
of water results in death.
changes to avoid that.
لتجنب ذلك.
a little bit more water than us,
فإن فيها ماء أكثر منا قليلا ،
a little bit more than us,
depending on the species,
to resist or avoid water loss.
can be found in succulents.
في النباتات المقاومة للجفاف.
at such great cost
are found in trees and shrubs.
تجنب فقدان الماء.
it through them at all times,
of roots to shoots is so great
الجزء الظاهر كبيرة جدا
has been planted upside down.
for hydration of that plant.
of avoidance is found in annuals.
استراتيجية مشتركة لتجنب الفقدان.
of our plant food supplies.
التي تعطينا غذائنا.
you don't see much vegetation growth.
مواسم السنة .
they produce a seed,
that dry and still alive,
is lie in extremes of environment
of desiccation-tolerant seeds
or angiosperms, onto land.
as our major form of food supplies.
التي هي مصدر غذائنا الرئيسي.
of our plant food supplies.
مصادر كوكبنا للغذاء.
you can produce a lot of seed.
في وقت قصير.
so there's a lot of food calories,
سعرات الغذاء الحرارية
for times of famine,
avoidance or tolerance characteristics.
to help them survive the rest of the year.
لبقية العام.
efforts in agriculture
to understand how those work --
of their cellular water,
الماء في خلاياها،
for months to years,
desiccation-tolerant.
of environmental conditions.
البيئية المتطرفة.
plant species that can do this.
يمكنها القيام بذلك.
of these three species
so you can see how quickly it happens.
وسترون سرعة حدوث ذلك.
trying to understand how they do this.
كيف تقوم بذلك.
of different resurrection plants,
القابلة للنشور،
of these plants serves as a model
تخدم كنموذج
to make drought-tolerant.
for example, is a grass,
ترون العشب،
called Eragrostis tef --
to make drought-tolerant.
at a number of plants,
do they do the same thing?
all that water and not die?
a systems biology approach
a comprehensive understanding
ecophysiological level.
الطبيعة البيئة.
as they dried out
عندما يجف
which is just a term for a technology
تعني التكنولوجيا
in response to drying.
so we look at the proteome.
سننظر للبروتينات.
in response to drying?
which make metabolites,
التي تفعّل الأيض،
because plants are stuck in the ground.
a highly tuned chemical arsenal
متناغمة جدا
the stresses of their environment.
involved in drying.
that we do at the molecular level,
على المستوى الجزيئي،
are made of lipids.
من الدهون.
because they're in water.
those membranes fall apart.
فستتساقط هذه الغشية
to turn on genes.
and biochemical studies
الحيوية
the function of the putative protectants
in our other studies.
to try and understand
with its natural environment.
I needed a comprehensive understanding
for a biotic application.
التطبيثات الحيوية.
genetically modified crops?"
المحسنة جينيا؟"
of genetic modification.
wheat, rice and maize,
كالقمح والرز والذرة،
from their ancestors,
by conventional breeding.
resurrection plant genes into crops,
نشور النباتات في المحاصل،
we have tried that approach.
some of my collaborators at UCT,
جامعة كيب تاون،
upon an extremely ambitious approach,
whole suites of genes
under extreme drought conditions.
some of the data from that first approach.
من الطريقة الأولى.
about how genes work.
of double-stranded DNA.
الحامض النووي.
of your body or in a plant's body.
سنحصل على الجينات.
of this gene, the next gene will start.
simple on-off switches.
a lot of fine-tuning,
before that gene is switched on.
قبل تشغيل الجين.
in biotech studies
التكنوحيوية
and see how the plant responds.
تلك النبتة.
to talk to you about,
a drought-induced promoter,
in a resurrection plant.
is that we do nothing.
genes from resurrection plants.
من نباتات قابلة للنشور.
particularly drought stress,
and can cause crop death.
هذا الضرر.
that's very popularly used in Africa.
جدا في افريقيا.
are plants without the genes,
do a hell of a lot better.
that there's considerable similarity
in seeds and resurrection plants.
و النباتات القابلة للنشور.
evolved in seed desiccation tolerance
تطورت كما في البذور المقاومة للجفاف
of resurrection plants?
of research from my group
of Henk Hilhorst in the Netherlands,
في هولندا،
that are involved in both.
تشترك في الاثنين.
very crudely for maize,
إيقاف التشغيل
for desiccation tolerance.
at the end of their period of development,
بعد نهاية فترة نموها،
switch on the same genes
الجينات
in their roots and leaves,
and cellular signals
in resurrection plants,
القابلة للنشور،
in the evolution of resurrection plants
القابلة للنشور
for your attention.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Jill Farrant - Professor of molecular and cell biologyJill Farrant is leading the development of drought-tolerant crops to nourish populations in arid climates.
Why you should listen
A professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, Jill Farrant researches the remarkable (and little known) world of resurrection plants. These are plants that can survive extreme drought, “resurrecting” when moistened or irrigated. If we can better understand their natural preservation mechanisms and their key protectants, she suggests, it could help us develop more drought-tolerant crops to feed populations in increasingly dry and arid climates around the world. Her research may also have medical applications.
Farrant was the African/Arab States recipient of the 2012 L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science, one of only five scientists worldwide who were selected by an international jury as "researchers who will have a major impact on society and help light the way to the future." In 2009, she was awarded an A-rating by the National Research Foundation (the first female researcher at UCT ever to receive such a rating) as well as being made a member of the UCT College of Fellows.
Jill Farrant | Speaker | TED.com