Genetics Study Discovers Salt Tolerance Gene in Soybeans

When it comes to growing crops, salt tolerance can be a huge boon. Now, scientists have discovered a salt tolerance gene in soybean, which could be a huge step forward for the agricultural industry.

"Soybean is the fifth largest crop in the world in terms of both crop area planted and amount harvested," said Matthew Gilliham, one of the researchers, in a news release. "But many commercial crops are sensitive to soil salinity and this can cause major losses to crop yields. 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."

The researchers examined the genetic sequence of several hundred soybean varieties before pinpointing a likely candidate for a salt tolerance gene. Then, they compared two commercial cultivars. In the end, they found that the gene conferred salt tolerance in 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," said Lijuan Qiu, one of the researchers. "This has left many new cultivars susceptible to the rapid increases we are currently seeing in soil salinity around the world."

 Now that the researchers have identified the gene, it can be used in breeding programs to ensure that salt tolerance can be maintained in future cultivars of soybean. This could be huge for areas with high soil salinity.

"This gene functions in a completely new way from other salt tolerance genes we know about," said 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."

The findings are published in The Plant Journal.

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