University of Hawaiʻi researchers have taken an important step towards understanding what makes pineapple able to thrive in arid conditions, where few other crops can survive and how this knowledge can be used for other crops in drought-stricken areas. Nancy Jung Chen and Robert Paull, researchers in the Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences (TPSS) in the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, were part of the international team that has sequenced the genes in the pineapple genome. The team was led by TPSS graduate Ray Ming, now a professor at the University of Illinois. Paull and Chen were involved in the characterization of the genes involved in sugar and cell-wall metabolism.
The paper reporting the results of this international sequencing effort appeared in the latest online issue of Nature Genetics.
Pineapple trait could produce drought resistant plants
In world trade, pineapple is the second most important tropical fruit after bananas, grown widely throughout the tropics. Besides its economic importance, pineapple has unique traits that have made it an exciting subject of research. It has an alternate photosynthetic pathway that concentrates carbon dioxide during the night, while it closes its pores during the day to reduce water loss. This leads to high water use efficiency—about 20 percent of what most plants use.
As the paper explains, all plants have the capability of using this alternate strategy; it just “requires rerouting of pre-existing pathways,” something researchers are hoping can be done to make other crop plants more drought resistant.
The plant also has a unique flower induction method that means that plants can be made to flower throughout the year, not just at set times. Work is now underway to use the sequencing data to determine how flowering is controlled in pineapple.
Chen and Paull were previously involved in the international sequencing efforts for papaya, Asian pear and sacred lotus.
—By Frederkia Bain
