The A-maize-ing Grain!

A poster divided in six blocks entitled “The A-maize-ing grain!”.

• First block has four maize plants and four larger maize plants. A sign with actual yield and potential yield written on it is close to the drawings, respectively. The written content is: Environmental stresses like drought caused by changing climate drastically reduce crop yield.
• Second block has a barley, a rice, a rye, wheat, oats, and a maize plant. The written content is: Vegetative Storage Proteins (a plant’s energy bank!) which can increase crop yield in stressful times remains amiss in grasses! But, in a one-of-a-kind breakthrough, scientist identified and characterized a protein in maize which behaves like a Vegetative Storage Protein.
• Third block has a natural maize plant and a modified maize plant. Both have a zoom of their leaves showing a different pattern on them with the modified plant showing some fluorescent dots (proteins). The written content is: Using biotechnology, scientists tested maize plants for improved drought tolerance by multiplying this protein in its leaf cells by more than five times!
• Fourth block has a wilting natural flowering maize plant and a wilting modified flowering maize plant. The written content is: They conducted this study during the flowering stage of plant growth when drought affects grain yield the most.
• Fifth block has a wilting natural maize plant and a healthy modified maize plant. The written content is: But, as external conditions improved, the plants with multiplied proteins relied on this additional energy reserve to regain health faster.
• Sixth block has a healthy modified maize plant. The written content is: Vegetative storage protein acted as an energy bank and proved especially important for plant health during drought. With increased tolerance to drought, it might now be possible to increase maize yields!

Footnote has the official SEB logo and the written content is: Authors: Hari K. R. Abbaraju and colleagues. Plant Biotechnology Journal (2022), A vegetative storage protein improves drought tolerance in maize. Artist: Pooja Gupta. This project is funded through an outreach grant awarded to Ravindra Palavalli Nettimi and Krishna Anujan.