In the journal Antioxidants a degree thesis on the response of rice to soil salinization
di Beatrice Passarelli
20 July 2022 - According to the latest UN report on the state of food security and nutrition in the world, 828 million people went hungry in 2021, 150 million more since the outbreak of the pandemic. Rethinking agro-food policies and aiming for environmental, economic and social sustainability of the entire supply chain is necessary to reverse the trend. In this direction moves theResearch Unit of Food and Nutrition Sciences UCBM, engaged in projects ranging from the protection of biodiversity to precision agriculture, also for the mitigation of the effects of climate change. The research conducted by Michela Molinari, subject of the master thesis in Food Science and Technology and Supply Chain Management, published in the international magazine Antioxidants, investigated the mechanisms underlying the response to soil salinization of Italian rice varieties characterized by different tolerance or sensitivity. The phenomenon, among the effects of the climate crisis, consists in the accumulation of salts in the soil. In addition to drought, among the causes of salinization there is the lowering of the groundwater level below that of the sea which causes the seawater to be drawn inland, compromising the growth of crops. In Northern Italy this summer the problem led to the ascent of the salt wedge in the Po delta at a record distance of over 30 kilometres, also jeopardizing rice fields renowned for the production of PGI rice.
In order to understand the different sensitivity to salt of the examined varieties, the plants, subjected to salt stress, were subjected to physiological, genetic and molecular investigations aimed at studying the alterations induced by the stress conditions on the roots of the different varieties. According to research, the more resistant variety implements a complex antioxidant strategy which gives it greater tolerance to the phenomenon compared to the more sensitive variety which, on the contrary, immediately shows an inhibition of the development of the root system. “We need better performing plants that are able to respond to climate change – she says prof Laura De Gara, President of the master's degree course in Food Science and Human Nutrition – Identifying the traits that make some varieties resilient to hostile environmental situations will allow us to protect agricultural productivity from the consequences of the climate crisis, while also finding new strategies to safeguard the balance of our agricultural systems".
