New research from the John Innes Centre and the Central Science Laboratory
could help breeders to develop pea varieties able to withstand drought
stress and climate change.

The research also shows that the composition of crops is likely to change
with the climate.

"While many compounds have been reported to change in laboratory based
drought stress experiments, few have identified how such compounds change in
crops under field conditions," says Dr Claire Domoney of the John Innes
Centre.

The researchers used NMR spectroscopy to produce a profile of the levels of
all the different small molecules or metabolites in pea plant leaves. This
profile, known as the metabolome, was then compared with that from plants
subjected to controlled drought stress. The study found several key plant
metabolites increased under drought stress, some of which had not previously
been shown to be involved.

Less water, especially at critical times in the growing season, means lower
yield and quality. This new information could be used to identify varieties
of pea and other pulse crops that are more tolerant to changes in water
availability.

Drought stress also induced changes in compounds that could have an impact
on taste and flavour. Changes in climate are likely to alter the
characteristics of commercial crops and could possibly affect their value.
Peas and other legumes make a valuable contribution to sustainable food
production by fixing nitrogen in the soil for the next crop, reducing the
need for nitrogen fertilizer.

Funding: The work was funded by the Defra Pulse Crop Genetic Improvement
Network, www.pcgin.org, and the EU Grain Legumes Integrated Project,
www.eugrainlegumes.org

Full reference: Responses of the pea (Pisum sativum L.) leaf metabolome to
drought stress assessed by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,
Metabolomics December 2008 4(4)

The John Innes Centre, www.jic.ac.uk, is an independent, world-leading
research centre in plant and microbial sciences with over 800 staff. JIC is
based on Norwich Research Park and carries out high quality fundamental,
strategic and applied research to understand how plants and microbes work at
the molecular, cellular and genetic levels. The JIC also trains scientists
and students, collaborates with many other research laboratories and
communicates its science to end-users and the general public. The JIC is
grant-aided by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.
www.checkbiotech.org