China: Crucial gene helps crops grow on alkaline land

Chinese scientists have identified a crucial gene that allows staple crops to thrive on vast swathes of infertile lands worldwide.Trials have shown the modification to the gene, AT1, can greatly increase the yields of sorghum, rice, wheat, corn and millet grown on saline-alkaline land."There are hundreds of millions of hectares of such land worldwide," said Xie Qi, a lead scientist of the project."The cultivation and promotion of high-quality salt-alkali tolerant crop varieties will effectively increase the productivity of saline-alkaline land, which is important to ensuring global food security," he said.Xie, a researcher at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and colleagues from a mix of research institutes, including Professor Yu Feifei from China Agricultural University, and Professor Ouyang Yidan from Huazhong Agricultural University, published the findings last year in the topnotch academic journals Science and National ...