DNA discovery key for Africa's tea industry
A group of scientists from Africa is working on helping tea bushes withstand drought and increase crop yields. This may prove a game-changing event for the continent, which aims to dethrone India as the world's largest producer by 2020. Researchers, studying the drought-survival mechanisms of camelia sinensis, have identified a DNA marker for plants more able to withstand drought, insects, diseases and low temperatures. This means that they have found a shortcut that indicates whether a particular tea plant will tolerate stressful conditions, without having to wait to see if and how the plant grows. Scientists hope this will help countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa increase their tea output and avoid loss of earnings due to droughts and other hazards. Researchers behind the project have decided not to claim the results as intellectual property, allowing them to become free knowledge to the international scientific community.