Comments
An Indian scientist in the UK is working on a way to grow crops in arsenic-contaminated soil, a study which is likely to have wide ranging impact for farmers in north-eastern India.
Mohan TC, from Dr Alex Jones Laboratory at the School of Life Sciences in the University of Warwick, who conducted a pilot study in transgenic barley hopes to repeat it in rice following funding from the Medical and Life Sciences Research Fund, UK, announced the university on Wednesday, to mark World Soil Day.
“To stop the cancer-causing arsenic entering into the food chain, it is essential to develop safe crops, by restricting the translocation of arsenic to edible parts,” he said.
“In our current project, we are trying to manipulate cytokinin hormone in rice plants through genetic engineering and we expect to increase the roots’ detoxification capacity,” he said. Warwick University said that arsenic in soil is a worldwide problem. The chemical is naturally found in water supplies and soil.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.