What land is salty? To me, five!
2003/05/16 Elhuyar Zientzia
Some plants have the capacity to live in very salty lands. Researchers from France, Britain and Japan have seen that scientists now knew two saline tolerance mechanisms for these plants.
Some salt-tolerant plants are able to limit the amount of salt that enters the roots. Others absorb it and introduce it into vacuoles, preventing salt from damaging plant tissues. Now, analyzing the plant of Arabidopsis thaliana, they have realized that they also use another mechanism: the plant absorbs the salt and then returns it to the by means of falling sweat. In addition, the genes associated with this mechanism have been identified.
According to the researchers, the results of this research will help them to obtain new varieties capable of entering salty lands. In fact, many of the agricultural land is losing due to the amount of salt it contains. This problem is especially serious in areas with little rainfall and traditional irrigation such as Spain.
The image shows the upper part of the stigma or female organ of the Arabidopsis thaliana. Photographer: Jürgen Berge.
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