20 May 2019

How to think like a plant

From Nine To Noon, 10:09 am on 20 May 2019
Plant in Te Paki sand dunes in Northland New Zealand.

Photo: 123RF

A window into the world of plant decision-making, without the benefit of a brain. British plant developmental biologist Dame Ottoline Leyser talks to Kathryn about her research which uses the hormonal control of shoot branching to investigate plant decision-making mechanisms.

She says we face huge problems in the face of feeding a growing world population and amid  increasing environmental challenges meaning that GM and genome editing techniques must be part of the solution.