Objective Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) is a legume, primarily grown as a forage crop to feed livestock. Approximately 32 million hectares (ha.) of alfalfa are grown world wide of which 1.1 million ha. in Kazakhstan (steppes and mountains). The range of this crop includes various soil-climatic zones, irrigated land of south Kazakhstan and unirrigated land in north Kazakhstan. Alfalfa has a higher feeding value than most forage crops and it serves as an important on-farm protein source for animals. Legumes are one of the main producers of proteins for human consumption and cattle feeding. Protein production is achieved by the symbiotic relation between the Rhizobium bacterium (fixing atmospheric nitrogen) and the green plant (supplying metabolic energy and reducing power for nitrogen fixation).The project aims at an improvement of agricultural crops within the genus Medicago and other legumes, tolerant to saline conditions. Screening for useful cultivars follows an integrative approach. Firstly, promising accessions are obtained from cultivars and wild species of Medicago and taxonomically related legume species. Secondly, from existing germplasm collections and the above accessions, mass screening of cell and tissue cultivars will be carried out for salt tolerance. Also, somatic embryogenesis will be used as an experimental screening technique for salt tolerance. Thirdly, evaluation of promising accessions will be carried out at the intact plant level and morphological characteristics will be determined. Within this integrated approach, promising accessions will be tested on aspects of energy metabolism, plant-water relationships, nitrogen balance and nitrogen fixation. Finally, selected accessions will be tested for their agricultural merits as harvest and protein content.The expected results are: a selection of promising accessions legumes in Kazakhstan; the application of the cellular screening methodology to salt tolerance in legumes, in combination with the use of somatic embryogenesis; the testing of the accessions on intact plant behaviour under salinity stress in terms of nitrogen balance, N2-fixation, photosynthetic capacity and plant-water relations; the establishment and integration of a selection methodology, based on a matrix of morphological, anatomical and eco-physiological plant characteristics at the cellular, organ and intact plant level; the validation of this new selection methodology by combining salt tolerance experiments in both laboratory and field conditions; the basic interpretation of salt tolerance in terms of germplasm characteristics, photosynthetic assimilation, synthesis of N-containing compounds as amino acids proteins and osmo-regulators, water relations and further intact plant behaviour; the selection of promising Medicago (and other) lines tolerant to salinity and adapted to soil-climate conditions; the development of new biotechnological methods and its application for crops, exposed to stress conditions as salinity in the field. Programme(s) IC-INTAS - International Association for the promotion of cooperation with scientists from the independent states of the former Soviet Union (INTAS), 1993- Topic(s) 5 - Earth Sciences, Environment, Energy Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme Data not available Coordinator Rijksuniversiteit Groningen EU contribution No data Address 9751 NN Haren Netherlands See on map Total cost No data Participants (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Institute of Plant Physiology, Genetics and Bioengineering Kazakhstan EU contribution No data Address 480070 Almaty See on map Total cost No data
