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Oat is a major cereal crop important to human and animal diets. A successful
oat harvest is highly dependent on osmotic stress, which in turn may be
affected by drought or soil salinity. Most oat cultivars are moderately
tolerant to such stresses, but soil salinity can decrease oat seed
germination and stunt subsequent development in some cultivars, October
2005.

Due to the complexity of the salt tolerance trait, traditional breeding
has hitherto been unsuccessful in oat improvement. Hesham F. Oraby, of
Michigan State University, and colleagues take the first step in genetic
enhancement of the crop as they find that ?Barley HVA1 Gene Confers Salt
Tolerance in R3 Transgenic Oat.? Their work is published in the Crop Science
journal.

Researchers introduced three genes into oat: HVA1, from barley, for stress
tolerance; B-glucoronidase; and the bar herbicide resistance gene. An
analysis of the transgenic plants showed that the genes had been stably
transferred and expressed. The plants also showed increased tolerance to
salt stress conditions, as well as better growth during the recovery period.
Researchers also found that higher salinity levels significantly reduced
plant growth of both transgenic and control plants.

Subscribers to Crop Science can download the article at
[crop.scijournals.org]. Other readers can
take a look at the abstract at
[crop.scijournals.org].

[www.isaaa.org]

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