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Adelaide has a major role to play in the development of salt-tolerant crops
that could potentially feed millions of starving people worldwide, April
2005 by David Ellis.

According to statistics, world food grain production must be doubled by
the year 2050 to meet the demands of a growing global population.

?Even under ideal conditions, it would be difficult to increase crop
production much beyond current levels,? said Professor Mark Tester,
Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellow at the University of
Adelaide.

Based at the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics at the Waite
Campus, Professor Tester is a key researcher in international efforts to
turn the tide of crop production.

?With the greatest population increases being in the cities of developing
countries, it is an economic necessity that the majority of any increased
food production should occur in the countries in which these growing cities
are located,? he said.

?Most crop-growing conditions are far from ideal. Particularly challenging
is that increased production must be achieved in the face of decreased land
area for cropping, diminishing water resources and worsening environmental
constraints, such as drought and poor soil.

?There are both practical and theoretical constraints which limit just how
much a plant can do!?

Globally, cereal production is reduced by approximately one-third due simply
to the effects of drought, salinity and low temperatures, Professor Tester
said.

?The difference between the potential yield and that actually achieved is
termed the ?yield gap?. Most practical increases in global food production
will occur through the closing of this yield gap. In other words, we need to
develop crops, particularly the cereals, that will be more tolerant to the
so-called ?abiotic stresses?, notably drought, salinity and low
temperatures.? Abiotic stresses are a problem not only in developing
countries.

?The devastating effects of drought and salinity both on the environment and
on the farmers of Australia are all too apparent. Only two years ago,
national wheat production plummeted from 24 million down to nine million
tonnes as a result of drought.

?A recent market analysis of cropping identified drought and poor soil
conditions (mainly salinity) as the two most significant factors limiting
the yield of cereal crops in Australia. Salinity alone is estimated to be
costing the Australian wheat industry $1.3 billion annually. There is a
clear imperative to improve the tolerance of our crops to the harsh
environmental conditions that are prevalent in Australia,? he said.

The research underway in Professor Tester?s laboratory is focused on
increasing the tolerance of crops to saline soils.

?Central to this work is the stark observation that some plants manage to
keep growing well on saline soils (tough plants), whereas others grow poorly
(the wimps). We?re identifying genes that make the tough plants tough, and
then moving these genes into the wimps, in order to toughen up the wimps.

?The toughness genes may be derived from plants that are closely related to
the crops we want to make more tolerant, or else they may be found in more
evolutionarily distant plants, that display tolerance to greater extremes
than do the crop relatives.?

It is not only the presence of a particular gene that is important, but also
where in the plant the gene is activated, and when the gene is activated. It
is these cell-specific genetic issues that are a major focus of the research
program in Professor Tester?s laboratory.

?With the new developments in biology that exploit the power of robotics and
computing, extraordinary and exciting new advances are now possible,?
Professor Tester said.

?In large centres such as the Australian Centre for Plant Functional
Genomics and the Waite campus of the University of Adelaide, there is now a
critical mass of researchers who have the chance to make significant
breakthroughs in plant science and crop improvement. We live in exciting
times.?

[www.adelaide.edu.au]

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