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Biosalinity News IDB & UAE Government Renew ICBA Funding Agreement Biosalinity News IDB & UAE Government renew ICBA funding agreement Research Updates Partnerships Events and Training @ICBA Success story Resolving IDB 39th for crop’s water salinity Annual salinity and shortages Meeting and tolerance: in Gaza Strip... 40th unraveling the page 10 Anniversary... molecular mechanisms... page 11 Introducing ICBA’s new page 4 Board of Directors... page 15 ICBA Newsletter | Vol 15 | Issue 02 | August 2014 www.biosaline.org 2nd International Conference on Arid Innovations for Land Studies (ICAL2) sustainability and food The second International Conference on Arid Land Studies (ICAL2) will be held from September 10-12, 2014 in security in arid and Samarkand, Uzbekistan. This conference builds on the outcomes from International Forum on Desert semiarid lands Technology X and First International Conference on Arid Land Studies (ICAL1), sponsored by the Japanese Association for Arid Land Studies (JAALS). 10-12 September, 2014 The Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education of the Samarkand Republic of Uzbekistan and Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources Uzbekistan of the Republic of Uzbekistan and Ecological Movement of Uzbekistan are collaborating with the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) in organizing ICAL2 on “Innovations for Sustainability and Food Security in Arid and Semiarid Lands”. Detailed information about the conference program, templates for abstracts/manuscripts/posters, and announcements of organizing committee are on the web-page: www.cac-program.org/events/ical Contacts: Tel +988 71 2372130 +988 71 2372169 +998 94 2479127 Fax +998 71 1207125 2 Vol 15 | Issue 02| August 2014 Word from ICBA Director General InResearch Updates this issue...13 Opportunities to learn about 4 Success story for crops salinity small scale irrigation technologies tolerance: unraveling the molecular and management in saline areas mechanisms 13 Workshop on climate change 6 Salicornia bigelovii: a promising project’s impact assessment, Within the spirit of continuing the implementation of ICBA halophytic species for salinized adoption and sustainability strategy 2013-2023 it is very important for ICBA to secure a coastal regions Publications stable funding base and expand its program of 8 The vital role of earth observation 7 Environmental cost and face of research-for-development. We are very proud that both the satellites for monitoring water agriculture in the GCC countries - Government of the UAE and the Islamic Development Bank resources and agriculture in the fostering agriculture in the context (IDB) – our two major core donors – have recommitted their MENA region of climate change support to ICBA for the next five years. This will enable us to Partnerships 14 ICBA Annual Report 2013: continue implementing the Strategy and delivering on our Innovation–Impact–Partnership Mission. We highly value our strategic partnership with IDB 9 Partners perception survey and the Government of the UAE through the Ministry of 10 Resolving water salinity and 15 ICBA and IDB-member countries: Water and Environment and the Environment Agency – Abu shortages in Gaza Strip Partners in fostering innovative solutions that promotes Dhabi. 10 International institutions sustainable agriculture and rural collaborate to enhance water and In our endeavor to be a partner of choice, ICBA continues to development develop its capabilities striving to meet best international food security in Yemen @ICBA standards to support our partnership driven initiatives. One Events and Training 11 New ICBA members such endeavor is the implementation of a new financial and 11 IDB 39th Annual Meeting and 40th administrative system that will improve on the monitoring Anniversary 14 IDB and UAE renew agreement and reporting of ICBA’s performance. to support ICBA 12 Methods to help get better data ICBA continues to develop projects with new and existing to decision makers on climage 15 Introducing ICBA’s new Board of partners, targeting a variety of donors. Our ambition is to be change modeling Directors part of the solution to poverty and yield-gap in Africa, namely in marginal environments. To that end we are initiating 12 Marginal land status: challenges discussion with different partners that have long lasting and potential contribution to the experience in Africa and are initiating specific actions in East world food and income security and West Africa. Editors Layout and design ICBA Board of Directors for 2014-2017 has enriched with Charbel El Khouri Charbel El Khouri new members coming from Regional and International Fiona Chandler Illustrations Organizations. This injection of expertise and skills to the Shoaib Ismail Charbel El Khouri ICBA Board of Directors includes internationally renowned N.K. Rao scientists and leaders in areas of agriculture, finance and Production coordinator Staff writers Nadia Alamodi Cover page image: IDB and the UAE Government renew ICBA support agreement Photo credits: IDB Cover page image: IDB and the UAE Government renew ICBA international development. This rich mix of knowledge within Khaled Masmoudi the Board of Directors will help ICBA strengthen its Adla Khalaf management, programming, and international presence. Dionyssia Lyra I wish you an enjoyable reading through the rest of this Charbel El Khouri issue of Biosalinty News. To subscribe to Biosalinity News please fill the form on the following URL: Sincerely yours, http://biosaline.org/biosalinitynews.aspx Ismahane Elouafi Recycle Biosalinity News is printed on 100% recycled paper. When you have finished with this magazine please recycle it. Vol 15 | Issue 02 | August 2014 3 Research Updates Success story for crop’s salinity tolerance: unraveling the molecular mechanisms High soil salinity results in crop decline and constitutes a major constraint for agriculture, particularly affecting arid and semi-arid areas (James et al., 2012). Irrigation, when not well practiced leaves soils with high salinity. In addition, intrusion of seawater into coastal fresh water reservoirs, and erratic weather patterns, which seem to increase and which add drought years, compound the effects of increasing soil salinity. The problem of plants cultivated in soils with high salinity is the concentration of toxic ions in the root zone, which affects water uptake and transpiration causing ionic Photo credits: ICBA and electric imbalances, less growth, delayed development, and may lead to Barley experiment at ICBA greenhouse senescence and plant death. The abundance of sodium ions is the most deleterious as it is toxic in the cytosol and translocation and accumulation in leaves, for each treatment. Salt treatments (0, 7, competes with potassium ions which are since young leaves and photosynthetic and 15 dS/m) were applied at the 3 leaf essential for plant’s functioning and are tissues are very sensitive to salt stress stage and were maintained till the end of the compatible with protein structure, even at (Munns and Tester, 2008; Benderradji et al., plant cycle. Leaf, leaf sheath, and root high concentration. 2011). samples were harvested after one week of Plant tolerance to salinity constraint involves For screening barley core collection for exposure to salt stress from the + complex and integrated responses, at the salinity tolerance, 10 barley lines (5 tolerant hydroponically cultured barley plants for Na + cell, metabolic, and even anatomic levels; and 5 sensitive) were selected to carry out and K analysis and for RNA (ribonucleic the relative contribution of which is characterization of the stress response by acid) extraction. dependent on the specific species. measuring several physiological and Results obtained for Na+ and K+ analysis However, for every species, it involves the molecular parameters. The experiment was using the Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP) ability of the plant to maintain efficient root conducted at ICBA and designed to study emission spectrometry procedure reflected + potassium (K ) uptake in presence of high the plant growth in hydroponics system (1/2 the retained Na+ at the leaf sheath + sodium (Na ) concentrations, and to balance strength of Hoagland’s solution) under compartment for the tolerant lines of barley, + the net Na uptake by the roots and its greenhouse conditions with three replicates while the sensitive ones leaked Na+ to the Control 7 dS/m 15 dS/m Figure 1: Effect of salt stress on plant growth on hydroponic culture under greenhouse conditions. The sensitive barely line shows biomass reduction, chlorosis and senescence due to sodium accumulation in leaf tissues. 4 Vol 15 | Issue 02 | August 2014 Research Updates Na+/K+ value in leaf sheaths 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 value + 0.8 /K + Control Na 0.6 Salinity 1; 7dS/m 0.4 Salinity 2; 15dS/m 0.2 0 S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 Accession S: Sensitive T: Tolerance Figure 2: Sodium and potassium accumulation in leaf sheaths of the tolerant and sensitive barley lines. The tolerant lines retained and accumulated more sodium than the sensitive ones. upper shoots showing symptoms of toxicity a salt tolerant gene HKT1;5 was observed in Plett D, Gilliham M. (2012). Wheat grain yield on saline + and senescence (Figure 1). Roots from leaf sheaths of the tolerant varieties, while soils is improved by an ancestral Na transporter gene. Nature Biotechnology 30, 360-366. sensitive and tolerant barley lines retained moderate expression was observed in + and accumulated Na to a similar sensitive varieties and the control non Written and submitted by: Khaled Masmoudi1, concentration, indicating no difference
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