By tinkering with the reproductive life of moss - and solving one of the fundamental questions about plant evolution - a Melbourne researcher has accidentally discovered a possible gateway to feeding an increasingly hungry world.

Monash University geneticist John Bowman - in collaboration with researchers in Japan - went in search of what the common ancestor of all land plants might look like, at a genetic level.

Professor John Bowman's genetic-level research with moss has reaped an unexpected harvest. Credit:Meredith O'Shea

In solving part of that puzzle, Professor Bowman has taken a step closer to finding one of the holy grails of agriculture - a process called apomixis - in which high-yield, drought-resistant plants would clone themselves via their seeds.

''It would make new crop varieties both cheaper and more widely available,'' Professor Bowman said.