Author Correction: Rewiring an E3 ligase enhances cold resilience and phosphate use in maize.
Liao H, Zhao X, Ren K, Guo L, Li Z
Crop Improvement
Corn bred to stay productive through a surprise cold spell and stretch scarce soil nutrients further could mean steadier harvests and lower fertilizer costs for the farmers who grow the food on your plate.
Inside every plant cell are proteins that act like molecular trash collectors, deciding which other proteins get recycled. Scientists tweaked one of these collectors in corn so that it changes how the plant responds to cold weather and how it pulls phosphorus out of the soil. The result was a corn plant that holds up better in a late frost and wastes less of the fertilizer it's given.
Key Findings
Modifying the E3 ligase protein in maize improved the plant's tolerance to cold temperatures
The same genetic rewiring enhanced phosphate uptake or use efficiency in maize
This is an author correction to the original study, indicating a detail in the published paper was revised post-publication
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers modified an E3 ligase — a protein that controls what other proteins get broken down — in maize (corn), making the plant better at surviving cold snaps and more efficient at absorbing phosphate from soil. This is an author correction notice for the original research paper.
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