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Understanding Halophytes for an Agriculture Worth its Salt

Objective

One of the greatest challenges of the 21st century is to meet the world’s future food security and sustainability needs despite the rapid and large declines in suitable resources needed for the agricultural expansion required in the foreseeable future. As a result, interest in saline resources has escalated over the years but, notwithstanding great efforts from the scientific and breeding community, success in the development of salt tolerant crops remains elusive. For major breakthrough in crop breeding for salt tolerance, there is an urgent need to look at new options to find previously unexplored traits and mechanisms. With a multi-disciplinary approach and state-of-the-art biophysical and molecular techniques used in plant molecular biology, ion transport biology, halophyte ecophysiology and electrophysiology, the project will reveal the fine print of one of the most interesting mechanisms evolved by plants to deal with excess salts and thrive in these otherwise hostile environments. Given that dicotyledonous halophytes use sodium as a cheap osmoticum, the main objective of the project is to unravel the complementary morphological, physiological and anatomical characteristics that enable them to deal with cytotoxic sodium. The project will focus on four distinct halophytic species (facultative vs. obligate and with vs. without salt bladders): Atriplex nummularia, Chenopodium quinoa, Salicornia dolichostachya and Beta vulgaris ssp. marittima. By understanding how these different halophytes orchestrate efficient vacuolar Na sequestration with greater cytosolic K retention and bladder cell-based desalination, this project is expected to led the way to uncharted pathways to pinpoint key biological mechanisms that could improve tolerance in traditional salt sensitive crops. Public engagement activities and contact with the scientific and agricultural community will ensure a rapid transfer of knowledge and improve the likelihood of developing new salt tolerant crops.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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MSCA-IF-GF - Global Fellowships

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Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2015

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 268 518,60
Address
Piazza San Marco 4
50121 Florence
Italy

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Region
Centro (IT) Toscana Firenze
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 268 518,60

Partners (1)

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