How can plant breeding help crops survive heat waves and frost?

Plant breeding plays a vital role in enhancing crop resilience against extreme weather, such as heat waves and frost, by selecting or engineering plants with specific genetic traits.12

Heat Tolerance

To combat rising temperatures, breeders utilize several strategies:
* Genetic Modification and Editing: Scientists use genetic editing and crossbreeding to alter how plants respond to heat. This includes modifying leaf architecture to balance sun and shade, or adjusting leaf reflectivity and chlorophyll content.2
* Photosynthesis Optimization: Researchers are investigating ways to edit enzymes like rubisco and proteins like rubisco activase to improve photosynthetic efficiency in warmer climates.2
* Utilizing Genetic Diversity: Because existing crops may lack the necessary traits, breeders are looking to wild or nonedible plants—which often thrive in extreme environments like Death Valley—to introduce new, heat-tolerant genetic material into hybrid crops.2

Frost Tolerance

While frost protection often involves physical methods like irrigation or wind machines, breeding focuses on developing varieties with inherent cold resistance. Breeders select for traits that allow plants to better withstand freezing temperatures, often drawing on the genetic resources found in heirloom plants that are already well-adapted to their specific regions.31