University of Adelaide researchers have made a breakthrough in investigating salt tolerance in plants which could lead to new salt tolerant varieties of crops, and also answer unresolved questions in plant biology.
The researchers, also from the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology and in collaboration with the University's School of Medicine, have discovered that a protein known to control salt balance in animals works the same way in plants.
The research, published in the journal Plant Cell and Environment, found that in plants, as in animals, a group of proteins, a type of 'aquaporin', can transport salt ions as well as water.
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The researchers believe these "double-barrelled" aquaporins may be the elusive proteins that let sodium ions─the toxic component of salt─in and out of plant roots. Since the early 1990s researchers have known that salt enters plant roots in saline conditions via pores in the membrane, but the identity of these pores has remained a mystery. This particular aquaporin is abundant on the surface of roots."We discovered that it has characteristics similar to the properties previously identified for the pores responsible for sodium ion transport," says co-lead author Dr Caitlin Byrt, Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine. "This finding opens new possibilities for modifying how plants respond to high salt and low water conditions."
Adjusting a plant species's uptake of salt could expand arable land or make use of salty water.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @05:12PM
^
this comment is long enough
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday September 21 2016, @05:43PM
Headline in 20 years: California is experiencing another intense flooding season this year.
Farmers continue to use record amounts of cheap sea water and the aquifer reached capacity. Locals complain about new laws that fine residents who don't water their lawns at least five times a week.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21 2016, @09:17PM
Not far off. More like:
"20 years of using sea water has exceeded salt tolerance of plants"
Farmers will complain that if they don't use sea water then their competitors will. Politicians will tell us this is the challenge of our time. Scientists will collectively say Doh!
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:08PM
I'm not surprised it's the Aussies doing this research.
They have the same problem as California, too many people, and not enough water. As other commenters have posted, salty water for crops is not the answer.
(Score: 2) by KilroySmith on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:36PM
And so what IS the answer? Kill off everyone more than 10 years younger or older than you? Limit the birthrate like China did? Make sex illegal without a government permit? Export all the "undersirables" to a barren patch of barely habitable land a long way away?
Inquiring minds want to know...
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday September 22 2016, @01:16AM
I'm not sure why you would ask me for a solution, I don't live in Australia and have no dog in that fight.
If the Murray-Darling Basin Authority can't sort it out, why would you think I can?
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:19PM
Plants that have adapted to salt might also use that salt as a "weapon" against competing plants. A case in point, the tamarisk (aka salt cedar), an invasive tree that has been plaguing the American Southwest. The plant can tolerant salt, extruding the extra salt from its leaves, increasing the salinity of the soil around the plant. This helps the plant to squeeze out non-salt tolerant native species like cottonwoods until nothing can grow but the tamarisks. While attractive, its success hurts species that a lot of wildlife depends on for food and shelter, while providing little of either itself. It is not particularly flood tolerant, so it is especially successful below dams in desert rivers and other areas in which the natural cycle of flash floods have been altered by man.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Dunbal on Wednesday September 21 2016, @10:30PM
So we will be able to irrigate crops with Brawndo [youtube.com] after all so no one is forced to use water. From the toilet.