Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory researchers triple grain sorghum yields with GM

In New York state, a simple genetic modification can triple the grain number of sorghum, a drought-tolerant plant that is an important source of food, animal feed, and biofuel in many parts of the world. In new research reported in Nature Communications, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have figured out how that genetic change boosts the plant’s yield: by lowering the level of a key hormone, generating more flowers and more seeds. Their discovery points toward a strategy for significantly increasing the yield of other grain crops.