Question: How are you going about stopping plants getting sunburnt?

Beth Dyson answered on 21 Jun 2010:

Just like some people get burnt very easily, and others can stay out in the sun all day, different plants react differently to sunlight. In humans, it is mostly to do with the amount of melanin (a coloured pigment) in your skin, and the amount of exposure you have had. This is why people with darker skin, or people who live in sunnier places tend to get burnt less.

Plants also have pigments in their leaves to help them use sunlight, like chlorophyll and carotenoids. However some plants are better than others at using them. So I’m trying to find out why plants that don’t get sunburnt are good at using light, and then transfer genes that help this process from one plant to another.