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Adelaide and Beijing scientists find salt tolerance gene in soybean

Primary Industries

RESEARCHERS from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and the Institute of Crop Sciences in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing have identified a specific gene in soybean that greatly improves its resistance to salt.

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RESEARCHERS from the University of Adelaide in South Australia and the Institute of Crop Sciences in the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing have identified a specific gene in soybean that greatly improves its resistance to salt.

Salt-affected soils account for 8% of the world’s total land area. Around 20% of irrigated land is salt-affected already. Irrigated land provides around 40% of the world’s food.

The project was led by University of Adelaide researcher and Associate Professor Matthew Gilliham.

“Soybean is the fifth largest crop in the world in terms of both crop area planted and amount harvested. But many commercial crops are sensitive to soil salinity and this can cause major losses to crop yields,” Gilliham said.

“On top of that, the area of salt-affected agricultural land is rapidly increasing and is predicted to double in the next 35 years. The identification of genes that improve crop salt tolerance will be essential to our efforts to improve global food security.”

Professor Lijuan Qiu and Dr Rongxia Guan at the Institute of Crop Sciences pinpointed a candidate salt tolerance gene after examining the genetic sequence of several hundred soybean varieties. Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology at the University of Adelaide's Waite campus then investigated the function of this gene.

“We initially identified the gene by comparing two commercial cultivars,” says Professor Qiu.

“We were surprised and pleased to see that this gene also conferred salt tolerance in some other commercial cultivars, old domesticated soybean varieties and even wild soybean.

“It appears that this gene was lost when breeding new cultivars of soybean in areas without salinity. This has left many new cultivars susceptible to the rapid increases we are currently seeing in soil salinity around the world.”

By identifying the gene, genetic markers can now be used in breeding programs to ensure that salt tolerance can be maintained in future cultivars of soybean that will be grown in areas prone to soil salinity.

“This gene functions in a completely new way from other salt tolerance genes we know about,” says Associate Professor Gilliham. “We can now use this information to find similar genes in different crops such as wheat and grapevine, to selectively breed for their enhanced salt tolerance.”

This research has received support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and is a feature article in The Plant Journal.

This is a Creative Commons story from The Lead South Australia, a news service providing stories about innovation in South Australia. Please feel free to use the story in any form of media. The story sources are linked in with the copy and all contacts are willing to talk further about the story. Copied to Clipboard

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