Production Of Salt Tolerant Plant

Production of salt tolerant plant has been a dream of genetic engineer. Recently salt - tolerant Arabidopsis has been produced. For this scientists first identified a gene coding for a channal proteins that transports Na+ along with +H across a vacuole membrane. Isolating Na+ in a vacuole prevents it from interfering with plant metabolism. Then the scientist cloned the gene and used K to genetically engineer plants that overproduce the channel protein. The modified plants thrived (increased) when watered with a salty solution. Irrigation, even into fresh water, inevitably (certainly) leads to a salinization of soil that reduces crop yields. Today, crop production is limited by effects of salinization an about 50% of irrigated levels.