Our planet is changing

Climate change is already impacting how we produce food on Earth.
It will change where we produce food too.

As the planet heats up, the parts of the world that currently grow most of our food will become hotter and more arid, and the global share of food production will likely have to move northwards. But for this to happen, Northern countries also need to develop new crop varieties that can cope with higher temperatures. One solution to this problem is to take crops that are currently grown at warmer latitudes and adapt them for growth in the North. However, due to the very different light environments in Northern countries we will need to engineer plants that can produce higher yields at high latitudes, thriving under short days, longer dawns and dusks, and higher temperatures.

Map of the Arctic with estimated agricultural climate zone limits for 2001-2005, 2050-2054, and 2095-2099, showing current boreal regions, with labels for Canada, Russia, China, Finland, Sweden, Siberia, and the Tibetan Plateau.

The planet’s agricultural zone is forecast to expand Northwards over the next fifty years.

To create climate-resilient plants, we study and engineer the plant circadian clock, a molecular oscillator that allows plants to tell the time and adapt to seasonal environmental changes.

Diagram of gene regulation pathways, showing interactions between various proteins labeled LHY, CCA1, PRR7, PRR9, TOC1, PRR5, LNK1, LNK2, RVE4, RVE6, RVE8, ELF3, ELF4, and LUX, with colored boxes and arrows indicating relationships.

The genetic architecture of the plant circadian clock. The clock is comprised of interconnected transcription factors that control gene expression at different times of the day. DNA-binding proteins are shown in black. (Adapted from Mehta et al., 2021)

Our lab aims to develop a sophisticated understanding of how the plant circadian clock controls all aspects of plant growth at the molecular level. We are also interested in how plants utilise the clock and other processes to help adapt to new geographic environments, something of paramount importance in a world experiencing accelerating climate change.

How we engineer latitudinally adapted plants

Step 1

Create plants with new clock genes using genome-editing tools like CRISPR.

Colorful LED lights arranged in rows with reflections on a metallic surface.

Step 2

Simulate different latitudes and seasons in the lab to select clock-edited plants that thrive at specific latitudes

Young seedlings growing in soil under purple grow lights inside a controlled environment.

Step 3

Understand how engineered clock genes alter the plant’s internal molecular network at different latitudes to predictably replicate outcomes in different plant species