Dhaka 7th July. Through genetic engineering, Dr. Wendy Harwood and her colleagues at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK developed a barley variety more susceptible to water deficit, i.e.,  a variety characterized by stomata which closed more readily when water was scarce. In other words, this mechanism enabled the newly evolved variety to  retain the plant’s water content making them more resilient in drought conditions.  Unusually, there was no ‘trade-off’ associated with this change as the plants grew equally well  in both water-abundant and  water deficit soils.