The seminars take place on the Montpellier Institut Agro/INRA Campus of La Gaillarde (2, place P. Viala Montpellier)

Thursday july 7, 2022 at 2pm – Amphi 2 (Bât 2bis)

Mark Tester

(King Abdullah University of Science & Technology, Saudi Arabia)

mark.tester@kaust.edu.sa

Genetics of salinity tolerance traits in crops – and developinng saltwater-based agricultural systems for a future water-scarce world

One-third of the world’s food is produced under irrigation. This is challenged by over-exploitation of water resources and global environmental change. This talk will focus on the use of forward genetics to discover genes affecting salinity tolerance in plants such as rice and Salicornia, along with some recent genomics in quinoa, a partially domesticated crop with high salinity tolerance. Rather than studying salinity tolerance as a trait in itself, we dissect salinity tolerance into a series of components that are hypothesised to contribute to overall salinity tolerance.

To deliver our research, we have now established a company, Red Sea Farms LLC, where we combine engineering and plant science to develop and use saltwater-based agricultural systems, to reduce the water and carbon footprint of modern agriculture, and to do this environmentally sustainably and economically viably.

Keywords: salinity tolerance; genetics; neo-domestication; delivery of research

contact : anne-alienor.very@cnrs.fr