Plant Proteins, AMU, and German researchers discover new plant protein
- ByStartupStory | September 28, 2021
AMU researchers have discovered a new plant protein in collaboration with a few German researchers. The protein has the ability to ‘improve the salt stress tolerance of plants,’ making farmland with salinity soil cultivable. The ability of crop plants to withstand salt stress will be an increasingly valuable trait in the future.
The protein named ‘HvHorcH’ was identified by Dr. Tariq Aftab who is an assistant professor in the Department of Botany, AMU along with other collaborators from Germany. ‘HvHorcH’ plays a vital role in conferring salt stress tolerance in barley plants.
The research was conducted at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany, while Dr. Aftab was a visiting scientist. The report has been published in the International Journal of Molecular sciences.
The identification of this protein is expected to open up new horizons in the development of stress-resilient crop plants, according to Dr. Aftab.
He further explains, “Global climate change, which is predicted to be accompanied by prolonged and intensified drought periods, is likely to aggravate this situation even further. Intensified irrigation attempts to combat drought ultimately increase soil salinity and thus eventually impede farmland cultivation when salinity reaches threshold levels that can no longer be tolerated by crop plants.’’
“It is, therefore, an eminent goal for a global sustainable food supply to improve the salt stress tolerance of crop plants in order to push these thresholds of soil salinity upwards so that more farmland with high-salinity soil will still be amenable to agriculture.’’
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