Gibberellins: extending the Green Revolution

The Green Revolution more than doubled crop yields and food production in crop species such as wheat and rice. This was primarily accomplished by altering the gibberellin (GA) signaling pathway to reduce plant height and prevent plants from falling over when growth was promoted with fertilizer application. Similar approaches have not been successfully accomplished in other grass crop species, such as maize, due to pleiotropic deleterious traits that arise from altering the GA pathway. This review highlights new findings in GA research across grass crop species. We have primarily focused on the developmental role of GAs in plant architecture and growth. We discuss how alteration of GA effects could be used to alter plant morphology and development of ideal plant ideotypes for grass crop species. To further extend the Green Revolution and improve food production from cereal crop species, targeted and tissue-specific regulation of the GA pathway will have to be undertaken.