This is the VOA SpecialEnglish Agriculture Report.
Scientists have produced the first tomato that can grow in saltywater. Salty water is generally harmful to plants. Plant expertEduardo Blumwald and his team found a way to direct salt away fromthe fruit of tomato plants. Mister Blumwald works at the Universityof California at Davis. The tomatoes were grown at the University ofToronto in Ontario, Canada. The publication Nature Biotechnologyreported the findings. Mister Blumwald says the discovery will beimportant for agriculture around the world.
Farmers use irrigation to water land by other than naturalmethods. It helps farmers in areas that have long periods of littleor no rainfall.
Crop irrigation also increases the salt levels of soils andwater. It leaves sodium, calcium, magnesium and other chemicals inthe farm land. The chemicals come from the soils and rock that thewater passes through. With time, they decrease the productivity ofthe land.
Experts at the University of California report that high levelsof salt from irrigation have damaged about forty percent of theworld’s farmland. American officials estimate thatirrigation-produced salt is responsible for the loss of ten-millionhectares of farmland worldwide each year.
Many areas treated with irrigated water are so salty that somecrops can no longer grow. Salty water harms the ability of mostplants to take in water through their root cells. The flow of waterinto the plant may stop if salt levels in the soil are very high.
Mister Blumwald’s team used genetic engineering to stop thiseffect. The scientists gave their tomato plants a gene from theArabidopsis plant. The gene controls the production of a transportprotein.
The transport protein uses energy in cells to move salt intoareas within cells called vacuoles. When the salt is inside vacuolesit cannot interfere with the plant’s normal biochemical activity.The salt-storing activity takes place only in the leaves of thetomato plants. So the tomato fruit is not harmed.
The researchers say these tomato plants also removed salt fromthe soil. The scientists said the plants grew and produced fruit inwater fifty times saltier than normal. Experts say these tomatoesoffer hope that other crops can be genetically engineered to grow inareas of the world that have salty irrigation water and salt-damagedsoil.
This VOA Special English AGRICULTURE REPORT was written by GeorgeGrow.