Energy costs of mechanisms for salinity tolerance in crop plants: a cost-benefit analysis

10–12 April, 2018

Feature issue

Following this workshop, a feature issue on Salt Tolerance was published in New Phytologist. You can read the feature issue here. 

Organising committee

Rana Munns^{1, 2} and Steve Tyerman^{1, 3}

¹ARC Centre of Excellence for Plant Energy Biology, Australia

²University of Western Australia, and CSIRO Agriculture

³University of Adelaide

Venue

The University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond

Goals

To complete a cost-benefit analysis in terms of energy demands of mechanisms of salinity tolerance in crop plants.

This will take the form of calculating the ATP costs of regulating the uptake of the Na⁺ and Cl^– from the soil, transporting Na⁺ and Cl^– across roots and into leaves, and intracellular compartmentation of these ions to avoid Na⁺ and Cl^- toxicity. The costs will be weighed against the benefits of avoiding ion toxicity and the costs of replacing ions with organic compounds for osmotic adjustment. Water flow coupled to ion fluxes at the protein and organ level will be a novel component of the analysis.

We will bring together international expertise in seven key areas not traditionally discussed in salinity tolerance research.  This will produce a unique analysis for framing salinity tolerance research and produce high impact publications.