DROUGHT AND AGRICULTURE: HERE'S THE ANTIOXIDANT THAT CAN SAVE ITALIAN RICE FROM CLIMATE CHANGE

The study of theUniversità campus Bio-Medico di Roma identifies the genetic characteristics of plants that resist water salinization and environmental stress

Rome, 7 June 2024 - Snowfall is at an all-time low, water tables are falling, and seawater is rising towards inland areas. Along with rising temperatures and increasingly stressful climatic conditions, rice plants are intended for agriculture are reducing their production and calling into question the future production capacity of the rice sector. Italy is the main rice producer in Europe with around 50% of the crops and an annual quantity of around 1,5 million tonnes. Italian varieties, appreciated throughout the world, suffer from the increase in the salinity curve Water scarcity in particular areas such as the Po Valley, where over 95 percent of national production is concentrated. Excess salt in the soil can cause plant death or, more often, a reduction in productivity, a phenomenon that is challenging the entire production chain, spurring research into food safety.  

   

To combat the effects of global warming a study by the Departmental Faculty of Sciences and Bio-Technologies of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma locate the molecular attributes of resistance to increased salinity of some of the main varieties of Italian rice and studies the characteristics that a rice plant must have to continue to grow and produce even in adverse climatic conditions.   

   

The research focused on 4 varieties currently cultivated in Italy, two more salt tolerant as Baldo e Onyx and two others more sensitive to salt such as Selenium e Dwarf avenueBy analyzing molecular traits related to phenotypic ones such as symptoms of distress and growth inhibition due to soil salinization, researchers from the Food Science and Nutrition Unit of theUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma have identified the ability to produce and accumulate antioxidants as the cause of greater tolerance to salt stress, publishing the first data on scientific journal Antioxidants and discovering that the plants most capable of surviving in an environment rich in salt are those capable of accumulating a greater quantity of glutathione, an antioxidant present in plant cells (but also in animals, fungi, and some bacteria) capable of preventing oxidative stress and cellular aging. The study of the metabolism of glutathione then allowed the researchers to identify the differences in the mechanisms of biosynthesis and control, including epigenetic, of the metabolism of glutathione between the different rice varieties, identifying the molecular traits potentially related to the tolerance of the rice varieties most resistant to soil salinisation.   

   

"The results obtained so far from our research were presented in recent days at the international conference “Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species in Plants” organised by the Plant Oxygen Group in Antibes Juan-les-Pins and in the next few months it will be possible to identify tolerance markers present in the plants most resistant to soil salinisation. – explained the professor Vittoria Locato, teacher in the Master's Degree Courses in Food Science and Human Nutrition and in Food Science and Technology and Food Design - Once these markers have been identified, it will be possible, through different biotechnological approaches, to transfer the resilience characteristics to rice varieties which, despite having great productive interest, are not resistant to salt stress.".   

   

In this way the most widespread and marketed varieties today, appreciated for their production or organoleptic characteristics but not sufficiently resistant to the changed climatic and environmental conditions, will be able to maintain adequate production levels capable of satisfying the demand for rice even in the changed environmental conditions.   

   

"Thanks to the possibility of crossing different varieties of rice - keep it going Leased - it will be possible to transfer characteristics of tolerance to environmental stress to varieties of agronomic interest, obtaining crops that are more resistant to climate change and therefore more productive, which will retain the organoleptic properties that make Italian rice and risotto famous throughout the world.".  

   

According to the Copernicus Climate Change Service of the European Union 2023 was 0.60 degrees centigrade warmer than the average for the years 1991-2020 and 1.48 degrees centigrade compared to the pre-industrial level of 1850-1900. 2023 was also the first year in which every day of the year exceeded the average temperatures of the period between 1850-1900 by at least one degree Celsius with almost 50% of days warmer than 1.5°C.  

   

Global warming has brought this to Italy in the last months, according to the CNR-ISAC, a February and a record meteorological winter: in 2024 the warmest ever recorded, with +3.09 degrees centigrade and +2.19 degrees centigrade respectively compared to the average of the years 1991-2020.  

   

The Italian rice production areas are the Piemonte (Vercelli and Biellese), Lombardy (Lomellina and Pavia, and with the Piemonte (accounting for 93% of national production), Emilia Romagna (Ferrara and the Po Delta), Veneto (Verona, Rovigo), Sardinia (Oristano and Muravera), but also in Tuscany (Grosseto), Calabria (Piana di Sibari), Friuli Venezia Giulia (Udine), Sicily (Piana di Lentini), and recently also in Trentino. In 2023, the cultivated area decreased by 8.182 hectares (-3,7% compared to 2022, with 210.239 hectares) and, although the Italian year was not among the worst, throughout Europe there is a decline in production due to the consequences of global warming in recent years, as the increase in temperature worsens soil salinity.