Will cytokinins underpin the second ‘Green Revolution’?

Abstract

A substantial body of knowledge relating to plant growth and development has derived from research on model plants—particularly Arabidopsis thaliana (Arabidopsis). It is imperative that this knowledge is used to develop crop plants that are not only higher yielding but also tolerant of environmental stressors, under the joint scenario of limitations of productive land and global climate change. Schwarz et al. (2020) provide a prime example of translational research, where knowledge from earlier Arabidopsis research with the cytokinins conducted in Thomas Schmülling’s lab ( Bartrina et al., 2011 ) has now been directly applied to increasing yield traits in Brassica napus L, oil seed rape.