RNA breakthrough creates crops that can grow 50 percent more potatoes, rice: Research could yield increased food production, boost drought tolerance

A new RNA breakthrough is allowing plants to yield dramatically more crops and increase drought tolerance, which could have an impact on food scarcity and production as climate change threatens ecosystems. In initial tests, adding a gene encoding for a protein called FTO to both rice and potato plants increased their yield by 50 percent in field tests -- and the plants grew significantly larger, produced longer root systems and were better able to tolerate drought stress.