Scientists at Purdue University found that lowering temperatures for two hours per day will reduce the height of corn without affecting the plants seed yield. This finding would allow corn to be grown in isolated and enclosed environments which would be particularly useful for growing transgenic corn to produce high-value medicinal products for the plant-derived industrial and pharmaceutical compounds industry. Grains of corn can be engineered to produce proteins that could be extracted and processed into nutraceuticals and essential vitamins. Corn would be a prime candidate for this process because of its high yield of seeds and well-characterized genome. Scientists installed a growth chamber in a former limestone mine in Indiana where light, temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels were tightly controlled. Through the manipulation of temperature and light they were able to dwarf corn stalks by 9% – 10% and reduce stalk diameter by 8%-9% without loss of seed yield. The use of mines and caves are affordable, prime locations to grow high-value transgenic plants because the natural coolness lessens the need to ventilate the heat generated from lamps and the high carbon dioxide levels in caves promotes plant growth. To read further about this work:
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