Slightly OT:Israeli Research Paves the Way to Grow Crops in Saline Land (fungi)

[Guest guest]

Just posting this to show you how resilient fungi are. Nothing can

live in or just around the Dead Sea, but it seems fungi can.

KC

Israeli Research Paves the Way to Grow Crops in Saline Land

12:04 Jul 10, '06 / 14 Tammuz 5766

by Hillel Fendel

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=106935

Israeli researchers from Haifa University's Institute of

Evolution have isolated a gene that withstands salinity - meaning a

great increase in the amount of worldwide land available for

agriculture.

Prof. Evyatar Nevo, director of the Institute, told Brinn of

Israel 21c.org that the new research " will contribute to a

significant increase in the amount of arable land available for

agriculture. "

Of the earth's 57 million square miles of land, only about 12

million (21%) can be used for growing crops - and that amount is

diminishing by 1% every three years. The new research will make it

possible to grow plants and crops in saline earth - land that has

been affected by too much salt in soil or in irrigation water. Brinn

reports that modern methods of irrigation and fertilization of crops

have caused much of the arable lands around the world to become

saline.

Prof. Nevo's team studied fungi in the Dead Sea, which is ten times

more salty than the oceans. " We became interested in the fungi's

genetic resources, " Nevo said, " [asking] what made them thrive in

the salty Dead Sea. "

A common fungal species known as Eurotium herbariorum was isolated

from the lake. One of Nevo's doctoral students, Yan Jin, from China,

then isolated and sequenced the HOG gene that is responsible, in

concert with other genes, for the fungus' ability to defend itself

from the salinity of the Dead Sea.

The gene was introduced into 'saccharomyces cerevisiae' - better

known as baker's yeast - and the team observed that the resultant

transgenic yeast was able to tolerate more salt than normal. The new

yeast was also able to better withstand extreme heat and cold.

The results of the study were published in the Proceedings of the

National Academy of Sciences [PNAS] of the United States. The next

step was to transfer the gene into the model plants Arabi-dopsis -

successfully making it salt-resistant.

" The genetic salt resistant resources of the Dead Sea could be very

important for revolutionizing saline agriculture around the world, "

Nevo concluded. " If we can transform this gene and other genes we've

cloned, we'll be able to improve crop production by making them salt

tolerant and enable the growth of crops like wheat in a tepid desert

area. Our goal is to develop a battery of salt resistant genes to be

used for crop improvement. "