Ancient magic plant to help grow food in space

Sydney: A team of Australian scientists has discovered a gene in a "magical" plant that will open the door for space-based food production, especially during deeper human missions, including to Mars.

Professor Peter Waterhouse, a plant geneticist at the Queensland University of Technology, discovered the gene in the ancient Australian native tobacco plant Nicotiana benthamiana -- known as Pitjuri to indigenous Aboriginal tribes. He made the discovery while tracing the history of the Pitjuri plant which, for decades, has been used by geneticists as a model plant upon which to test viruses and vaccines.

By using a molecular clock and fossil records, the team found that this particular plant has survived in its current form in the wild for around 750,000 years.

The plant has lost its "immune system" and has done that to focus its energies on being able to germinate and grow quickly, rapidly flower, and set seed after even a small amount of rainfall. The plant has worked out how to fight drought -- its number one predator -- in order to survive through generations.