Faculty Opinions recommendation of Genetic strategies for improving crop yields.

The current trajectory for crop yields is insufficient to nourish the world's population by 20501. Greater and more consistent crop production must be achieved against a backdrop of climatic stress that limits yields, owing to shifts in pests and pathogens, precipitation, heat-waves and other weather extremes. Here we consider the potential of plant sciences to address post-Green Revolution challenges in agriculture and explore emerging strategies for enhancing sustainable crop production and resilience in a changing climate. Accelerated crop improvement must leverage naturally evolved traits and transformative engineering driven by mechanistic understanding, to yield the resilient production systems that are needed to ensure future harvests. PMID: 31695205 Funding information This work was supported by: NIGMS NIH HHS, United States Grant ID: R01 GM060396 NIEHS NIH HHS, United States Grant ID: P42 ES010337