
Modified rice crops might higher deal with Martian soil
Antony Ratcliffe / Alamy Inventory Photograph
Gene-edited rice crops might be able to develop on Mars. Researchers have now recognized a gene that, when modified, appears to provide rice crops a greater probability of surviving in harsh Martian soil.
Martian soil, or regolith, has fewer vitamins than Earth soil and incorporates compounds that may be poisonous to some crops. To see how properly rice can deal with such situations, Abhilash Ramachandran on the College of Arkansas and his colleagues grew rice seeds in a collection of mixtures of standard …