Bulletin No. 2, 2014

Scientists, Muses and their Labs  5  Salt-Tolerant Wild Soybean Prof. Lam Hon-Ming , professor in the School of Life Sciences and director of the Center for Soybean Research, has succeeded in identifying the gene that makes soybeans salt tolerant after over 10 years of rigorous research and field work. The research, conducted via the Center for Soybean Research under the State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (Partner Laboratory at CUHK), is a milestone in the mass production of high-quality salt-tolerant soybeans, and will benefit agriculture in China and worldwide. ‘ This has two implications. First, it means we can protect plants from salt at a cellular level. Second, it means we can influence the accumulation of sodium ion. Sodium ion is one of the major components of salt, and it is toxic. Once it enters a plant cell, it affects physical function. We discovered that the target gene was able to lower the level of sodium ion in the plant.’ Professor Lam’s present research is built on a significant discovery he made when he and his team decoded 31 soybean genomes in 2010—wild soybeans have much higher biodiversity than cultivated ones and they may have retained genes that help them to fend for themselves in the natural environment. By contrast, plants pampered by humans may have lost the genes that enable them to cope with adverse conditions. Through collaborations with BGI-Shenzhen and the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Professor Lam and his team extracted the salt-tolerance gene from wild soybeans using the latest technologies in genomics, genetics, and molecular biology. The researchers managed to identify the positions of the main genes in 11 of the traits they observed. They also found an area in chromosome 3 that specifically controls salt tolerance. However, there are dozens of genes in that area. Using a variety of methods, the team finally found their target gene.