A new soy source for crop salt tolerance

Our collaborative research project with researchers at the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences has been published in the Plant Journal as a feature article.

Identification of genes that improve crop salt tolerance is essential for the effective utilization of saline soils by agriculture.  Our findings identify a gene that has great potential for the improvement of salt tolerance of commercial soybean varieties. The paper outlines how natural selection and domestication has led to mutations in the sequence of the gene and in many cases loss of its function. This has led to a loss in salt tolerance in many commercial varieties of soybean.

Fine mapping was used in a soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] population derived from the commercial cultivars Tiefeng 8 and 85-140, to identify GmSALT3 (SALt Tolerance-associated gene on chromosome 3), a dominant gene associated with limiting shoot sodium ion (Na+) accumulation and a substantial enhancement in soybean salt tolerance. This illustration shows the phenotypic variation between Tiefeng 8 and 85-140 treated with 200 mM NaCl for 18 d (top left); the tissue localisation of GmSALT3  within root phloem- and xylem-associated cells in the salt-tolerant parent Tiefeng 8 (top right); the subcellular localisation of GmSALT3 to ER in Nicotiana benthamiana protoplasts (bottom left); and, the distribution of different sequences for the GmSALT3 gene across China (bottom right).

The identified gene is from the cation-proton exchanger family which is expressed in vascular associated cells of the root. It produces a protein likely to be present on the ER. The exact role of this protein in conferring salt tolerance is still under investigation.

By studying the sequence of the gene in 184 soybean varieties and 57 wild soybean it is shown that natural variation in the sequence amongst different soybean has led to loss of function of this gene in certain areas. The geographical origin of the soybean with a loss in salt tolerance coincides with areas of low soil salinity.

The non-functional gene has entered many breeding programs and is consequently present in commercial varieties of soybean. Our findings will allow breeders to reintroduce the functional gene through either conventional or GM techniques, to improve commercial soybean salt tolerance.

This research has been supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China and National Key Technologies R&D Program in the 12th 5-Year Plan and the Australian Research Council.

See further info here in these releases from the PEB and the University of Adelaide.

Lead Chinese Researchers - Dr Rongxia Guan (first author) and Prof. Lijuan Qiu (Soybean genetics program leader) at the Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Assoc. Prof. Matthew Gilliham and PhD Student Yue Qu (joint-first author) ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology, University of Adelaide). 

A great occasion for the lab!

Congratulations to new Drs Bo Xu and Manchun Zhao, and Masters degree recipient Yue Qu all graduating yesterday.

Manchun's PhD thesis was entitled "CO2 and ion transport through plant aquaporins" (supervised by Steve Tyerman) and Bo Xu's "Characterisation of a novel calcium sensor in Arabidopsis".

Yue Qu's Masters thesis was on the "Salt tolerance mechanisms in soybean"

Some photos from the day, more to follow.

Left to right - Prof Steve Tyerman, Dr Manchun Zhao, Dr Bo Xu, Dr Matt Gilliham, Mr Yue Qu

Matt and Weasley!

 

Best Masters Student in Plant Biotechnology

Yue Qu, tonight picked up the Best Master's in Plant Biotechnology student tonight at the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine Prize giving, having come top of his year group. Congratulations to Yue for his hard work over the last couple of years - especially his year long project in our lab looking into the salinity tolerance mechanisms of soybean.

The great news for us is that Yue has also secured a PhD scholarship with us to continue his research.

We were lucky to have two great students this year from the Masters course, with Sana Ullah who gained new insights into the control of hypocotyl elongation in Arabidopsis. Sana is now in New Zealand with his family and is looking to continue his very promising research career.

Yue follows in the footsteps of other students from this program to join the lab for their PhD. This includes Brad Hocking and Bo Xu - who also received this prize for 2008 and 2009 respectively - and the equally as capable Jiaen Qiu who is currently writing up her PhD thesis. 

Prize sponsors were the ACPFG

Yue Qu with Eileen Scott, Head of School

ARC Centre for Excellence in Plant Energy Biology

Our new cross-disciplinary centre, involving researchers at the University of Western Australia, La Trobe, the Australian National University and the University of Adelaide has been funded from 2014 to 2020.

Looking forward to getting started once all the funding agreements are signed!

The focus of the centre is examining how plants use energy, particularly under stress, and see if there are ways in which we can streamline these processes in crop plants to improve yield.

Our new website is now active and is currently being populated, it will eventually contain full details of our novel approaches and our sub-programs that are designed to get a handle on the key drivers of plant energy use.

Chief Investigators of the new centre are:

UWA - Proteomics, Signalling and Epigenetics
Harvey Millar (Centre Director)
Ian Small
Ryan Lister
Rana Munns

La Trobe - Metabolic signalling
Jim Whelan

ANU - Ecophysiology, natural variation and signalling
Barry Pogson
Owen Atkin
Justin Borevitz

Adelaide - Transport and signalling
Steve Tyerman
Matt Gilliham

In a great piece of foresight at the ARC, they have also funded an equivalent centre in translational photosynthesis. We plan to collaborate with these researchers. The plan in 7 years is that we can find ways to not only improve energy use efficiency in plants, but we can also identify ways in which we can increase the amount of energy that plants can capture through photosynthesis.

Busy and exciting times!

ARC Future Fellowship 2013

Matt is delighted with having been awarded a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship. His four year fellowship will fund the lab to study the mechanisms of chloride transport in plants, particularly its role in the salinity tolerance of crop plants and how it interacts with nitrate transport pathways to define efficiency in nitrogen uptake. Read more here... 

For the stats behind the scheme, see here. As always, very tough competition this year.