Bioengineering Salt Tolerant Proteins: Crop Solutions from Wild Plants. Salinity affects 30% of global agricultural land, with climate change exacerbating the issue and leaving many crops unproductive

Description

Bioengineering Salt Tolerant Proteins: Crop Solutions from Wild Plants. Salinity affects 30% of global agricultural land, with climate change exacerbating the issue and leaving many crops unproductive. Wild plants like Salicornia (Samphire), which thrive in salty environments, provide valuable insights into building crop resilience. This project focuses on understanding how Salicornia protects its protein production machinery under high salinity, particularly through a newly identified RNA-binding protein. By uncovering these unique mechanisms, we aim to bioengineer salt tolerance into crops. The outcomes could enable sustainable farming on degraded lands, allow irrigation with saline water, and provide high-value crop options for farmers, addressing both economic and environmental challenges.. Scheme: Discovery Projects. Field: 3108 - Plant Biology. Lead: Dr Vanessa Melino