20.109(F11):Katie Vogel and Tonia Tsinman

Altering Sodium Uptake in Plant Cells For Increased Salinity Resistance

It's well known that most of the water on our planet is stored in the form of salt water found in oceans. Plants and animals, however, can only survive by using a fresh water source, which is a much smaller percentage of the total water supply. Hence, recent research has focused on increasing the tolerance of plant cells to salinity. A design of an effective technique to accomplish such a goal holds great promise, as this would mean that we could potentially re-engineer common crops such that they could be watered using salt water!