Crops possibly can be grown with significantly less water by altering a gene involved in regulating photosynthesis, according to new research by a team that included UC Berkeley scientists. Berkeley professor Krishna Niyogi, chair of the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology, and his lab found that a increasing a protein called PsbS improved the water-use efficiency of plants — the ratio of carbon dioxide entering the plant to water escaping — by 25 percent without significantly sacrificing photosynthesis or yields. That means the plants were able to thrive on 25 percent less water. (#33981)