Seeking Salt - Tolerant rice genes

Rice is the largest food crop in the world. But high levels of salt in the soil and poor water quality result in substandard crops and decreased yields. The problem gets worse with climate change. But in greenhouses and labs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the search is on for ways to make rice plants more salt tolerant. Given that rice feeds disproportionately higher percentage of poor population of the world, they become really exposed to salinity related food shortage. Harkamal Walia is a plant molecular physiologist. He studies rice at the genetic and molecular level. So we are looking at about 400 rice varieties that we have collected from 82 countries. And these are the ones that we think would be very valuable in understanding the genetic basis of salt tolerance in rice. In the greenhouse, a sophisticated system takes pictures of rice plants growing in saline conditions. Genetic information matched with visual changes can be used to identify salt tolerant genes. What we are trying to target is find those small, subtle changes that we can then associate with a particular rice variety and then since we have a large genetic resources such as DNA sequence information for these varieties, we can start associating the genes that might be regulating those subtle changes that can make a variety salt tolerant or less salt tolerant. In addition to Walia's expertise, the project brings together researchers from statistics, computer science and agronomy. Collaboration is critical for success. We can actually push the boundaries of what you can do because you develop new methods. You come up with new algorithms and analysis approaches. So that kind of expertise is hard to imagine that would be present in a single lab. Backed by funding from the National Science Foundation, Walia hopes the project will lead to stronger, more resilient rice varieties. My research at least at a personal level is driven by curiosity. And to have an impact on food production and food security. [music]