Breeding for heat stress tolerance

Okay kiddo, so when we talk about breeding for heat stress tolerance, we are talking about trying to make plants and animals that can handle really hot temperatures without getting hurt.

Just like how you wouldn't want to play outside on a really hot day without some cold water to drink and a shady spot to rest in, plants and animals can also have trouble when it gets too hot outside. They might start to wilt, or get sick and die.

But, scientists and farmers are working to help make plants and animals that can handle the heat better. This means they look for traits (or special features) that certain plants or animals have that help them do well in hot temperatures, like being able to hold onto water, or having special enzymes (which are like tiny machines inside cells that help make things happen in the body) that can work better in high heat.

Once they find plants or animals with these helpful traits, they can breed them together to make new plants and animals that have even better heat tolerance. It's sort of like mixing together different colors of paint to make a new color - by choosing certain parents to have babies with, they can create new generations of plants and animals that are more able to handle hot temperatures.

So, that's basically what breeding for heat stress tolerance means - creating new generations of plants and animals that can handle really hot weather without getting hurt. It's important work, because as the Earth gets hotter due to climate change, we will need more and more plants and animals that can handle extreme temperatures to be able to survive and thrive.