A staff checks newly harvested wheat at a storehouse of a grain and oil company in Qitai County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 9, 2024. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese researchers have decoded a novel salt-tolerance gene in wheat, resulting in yield increases of 5 percent to 9 percent in experimental varieties grown in saline-alkali soils.

The study findings have been published in the journal Nature Genetics.

Wang Meng, corresponding author of the study, from the Institute of Soil Science (ISS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), said that China's primary wheat-growing regions coincide with high occurrences of soil salinization. Spring marks a crucial growth period for wheat, characterized by jointing and grain filling, yet it aligns with peak soil salinity, severely impacting wheat growth and yield.

Researchers from the ISS, Northwest A&F University and Qingdao Agricultural University analysed over 500 wheat varieties and lines cultivated for years in saline-alkali fields and identified TaSPL6-D, a transcriptional suppressor of critical salt-tolerance genes in wheat.

The research team found that due to natural genetic variation, there exists a natural variant of TaSPL6-D, termed TaSPL6-D-In in landraces, which loses its ability to suppress key salt-tolerance genes in wheat.

Using molecular-assisted breeding method, researchers introduced TaSPL6-D-In from a landrace into a leading wheat cultivar, successfully improving the yield in saline-alkali soils.

Zhao Zhendong, an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Cao Xiaofeng, an academician with CAS, both said that this research provides pivotal design targets for advancing molecular breeding in salt-tolerant wheat and other crops. 

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