ACPFG licenses UConn technology to improve country's cereal crops

The Australian Centre for Plant Functional Genomics (ACPFG) and the US University of Connecticut (UConn) have entered into a licensing agreement for the UConn’s vacuolar pyrophosphatase (AVP1) salt tolerance technology in cereals, which is discovered at UConn by world-renowned scientist Dr. RobertoGaxiola and will be used to improve Australian cereal varieties.

While ACPFG continues to develop its own technological breakthroughs for salinity tolerance, such as its patented CIPK16 technology, UConn's vacuolar pyrophosphates (AVP1) technology has been identified as a promising candidate in cultivating saline tolerant crops.

According to Michael Gilbert, ACPFG’s General Manager, “One of ACPFG’s objectives is to source technologies for the benefit of Australian growers. UConn’s AVP gene is looking very promising in our field trials that Stuart Roy’s team is conducting in very saline conditions at a farm in Corrigin, WA.”

Salinity affects crop plants worldwide. In Australia, the problem is growing with already 51% of Western Australian farms affected in some way by saline soils. Saline soils affect the growth of crop plants by reducing shoot growth and interfering with metabolic processes, such as enzyme activities and protein synthesis. Due to both of these stresses, crops grown on saline soils have significantly reduced yield.

“Essentially plants utilizing UConn’s AVP1 technology display larger root systems and other enhanced physiologic changes that improve growth characteristics and increase the tolerance of the plants to adverse conditions—in this case soils with high salinity and with restricted water availability,” says Greg Gallo, the director of life sciences for UConn’s Office of Economic Development. Gallo points to a future where genetically engineered drought- and salt-tolerant plants could provide an avenue to the reclamation of farmlands lost to agriculture because of salinity and a lack of rainfall.

“UConn’s goal is to see the AVP1 technology utilized as widely as possible and the addition of wheat and barley is a nice complement to the crops currently under license,” said Gallo.