Professor Stuart Roy, SAFW, Adelaide University

Date: Thursday, 09 July; 10-11 am,  SARDI Auditorium

Title: Establishing a new paradigm for salinity tolerance in cereals: Version 2

Abstract: Salinity tolerance in plants consists of several sub-traits. All plants exclude >95% of soil sodium (Na⁺) from their tissues, but the majority of research has focussed on enhancing Na⁺ exclusion from leaf blades. While improvements in this sub-trait have been successfully introduced into some crop species, its adoption into bread wheat or barley commercial varieties has been lacking, as its influence on improving yield has been inconsistent/detrimental. With recent evidence finding no negative correlation between leaf Na⁺ concentration and yield in bread wheat and barley, it is hypothesised that exclusion of Na⁺ from reproductive tissue is a key determinant of yield. It is also hypothesised that the failure to introduce enhanced Na⁺ excluding mechanisms for improving commercial bread wheat and barley yields is due to the dryland environment in which Australian crops grow, and the crop’s ability to uptake water for growth.

This presentation will look at the different ways bread wheat and barley transport Na⁺ through the plant (through having different alleles of the Na⁺ transporter HKT1;5). It will also cover the progress made to understanding the underlying mechanisms for tissue tolerance, and whether accumulation of Na⁺ in certain tissues is a viable approach to enhance yield in a low saline dryland environment.

Bio: Stu is a Professor  at the School of Agriculture, Food & Wine, University of Adelaide. He is currently the Deputy Director (Industry) for the ARC Industrial Transformation Training Centre for Accelerated Future Crop Development, on the management committee for Plant SynBio Australia, and formerly the Director for the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Wheat in a Hot and Dry Environment. His interests are in improving the abiotic stress tolerance of cereals crops, particularly salinity tolerance, and in improving cereal yield.Stu gained a BSc (Hons) in Plant and Environmental Biology for the University of St Andrews (UK) and a PhD in Plant Physiology from the University of Cambridge (UK). After a Broodbank Research Fellowship at Cambridge, Stuart moved to the Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics, University of Adelaide, to lead the Salinity Research program. He continues this program today in the School of Agriculture, Food and Wine.

Stu is also looks after the Student Experience portfolio at School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, and is the Program Director for the Bachelor of Agricultural Science Degree.

https://adelaide.zoom.us/j/88324941961?pwd=iBEvCU8wU2bKbEa3JaDzLIDGOZtEkj.1

Webinar ID: 883 2494 1961, Passcode:429141