Kessel Salinity Center for Agricultural Biology

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Avinash Sharma

Plants have developed molecular and physiological strategies to cope through abiotic stress. Plant Ubiquitin-Proteasome System (UPS) is one of the key players controlling protein turnover and is critical for immediate cellular responses during environmental stress. This research subject is Arabidopsis Plant U-box 41 (AtPUB41), a stress modulated E3 ubiquitin ligase.

Aye Nyein Ko

In this study we investigated the physiological mechanism of plants’ competition at the root level under salinity stress. Our goal is to elucidate the plants response to stress based on their carbon allocation.

Bupur Swetha

Survival of plant species in natural environment occurs by the dispersion of seeds. In our study we investigate the effect of salinity (S), short episodes of high temperature (HS) and combination of S+HS (SHS), at the reproductive phase, on yield with a special focus on the properties of dead pericarps of Brassica juncea.

Doron Kalisman

Soils irrigate with salty water need to be flushed to remove the excess salts. This practice is limited due to the distribution of the soil solution in cavities where water is stagnant and solute transport is governed by diffusion. Salt leaching by flushing occurs in relatively short time scales, as it relies on advection dominant transport. Consequently, adsorbed ions and diffusive sites weakly participate in these short-duration rapid-flowing events. The main objective of our research is to introduce pressure-waves in the water flow regime during the leaching process for increasing the mobilization of excess salts from the root zone.

Jeevan Kumar

This study investigates how abiotic stresses impact the progeny's seed properties. In details, we sought to investigate the effect of salinity (S), short episodes of high temperature (HS), and combination of S+HS (SHS), at the reproductive phase, on the properties of dead pericarps of Brassica juncea.

Prashanth Kakarla

This research aimed to investigate the response of the three different grapevine rootstock cultivars (Paulsen, Richter 110 and SO4) to salinity stress.

Sharon Chemweno

This research focuses on the effects of salinity and nitrogen stresses on different tomato rootstock. Field and greenhouses experiment were performed using aeroponic and hydroponic systems. The overall objectives were to evaluate plants' physiological and morphological tolerance mechanisms.

Tali Neiger

The goal of this research is to find genes that regulate agronomically important traits like various water and salinity stress coping mechanisms in plants. This requires an understanding of both the specific locations in the genome control a phenotype, and the genetic architecture of a trait. The main objective is to find novel associations between traits and genetic markers linked to them through a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on plants grown in two environmental conditions and sampled in two light regiments (mid-day and mid-night, thus catching the full range of metabolic regulation) using several hundred tomato accessions.

Tsfaye Asmare

This research focuses on Sarcoconia species, halophytes used as fresh and processed food and cultivated for their highly nutritious oilseed used also in medicine. The objective of our study was to investigate some Sarcocornia ecotypes growth performance under different salinity and nitrogen levels.

Tsofya Maymon

The ability of plants to adapt to extreme environmental conditions such as salinity is linked the production of the phytohormone Abscisic acid (ABA), the primary regulator in response to abiotic stresses. In this research we studied factors affecting the stability of the ABI4 protein in Arabidopsis plants, especially NaCl, using transgenic lines that overexpressed ABI4-eGFP driven by a constitutive highly expressed CaMV 35S promoter.

Yaniv Lupo

This research focuses on the combined abiotic stresses of salinity and drought on grapevines (Vitis vinifera). Our objectives are to investigate the physiological mechanism of abiotic stresses tolerance on different rootstocks grafted with the same scion and the role of leaf age on salinity tolerance mechanisms.

Lingling Wen

In this research we aim to explore the interaction between physiological and metabolic responses in different tomato plants grafted combinations, under cold and salt stress combinations, eventually evaluating part of the metabolic pathway which is reflected by the performance of physiological parameters.

Kaining Zhou

Plant growth and development can be regulated by manipulating root volume and fruit load intensity. In this research we investigated how root volumes and fruits loads affect physiological and morphological responses of tomato plants under salt stress.

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Alon Shlisser

Three commercial rootstocks of grapevine (Vitis), differing in their reported level of tolerance to abiotic stresses were examined to investigate the mechanism underlying the response to salinity.

Avinash Sharma

Plants molecular responses to abiotic stress is the main topic of this research. Particularly, the plant ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) which controls protein turnover and immediate cellular responses during environmental stress.

Chao Song

The grafting, constructing a fusion of shoot (scion) and root (rootstock), exhibited a great potential to impart tolerance to plants against abiotic stress by selecting appropriate belowground plant parts. In this research, the response of the scion to salinity stress was addressed by selecting cultivated tomato S. lycopersicum Mill. cv. M82 as scion and grafted it onto about 254 different rootstocks, including wild races, commercial lines, cherry tomatoes, and hybrid lines.

Kaining Zou

Fruit thinning is a common practice to achieve high quality fruits. In this study, the interplay of tomato shoots and roots under different salinity levels and different fruit load intensities was examined to estimate higher yield potential.

Ling Ling Wen

Grafting is demonstrated as a promising tool to broaden the tolerance to abiotic stresses for tomato cultivars. In this research it was explored the interaction between physiological and metabolic responses in different tomato plants grafted combinations, under cold and salt stress combinations. The rootstocks of the three cultivars (Lurka, 604 and 20) and Lurka grafted as the scion were examined.

Prashant Kakarla

This research aimed to investigate the combined stress effect of drought and salinity on root-shoot relations of different grafted grapevine.

Robert Neufeld

Salinity has been a major concern in treated wastewater (TWW) used for irrigation due to the addition of Na from desalinated water. The relatively high concentration of sodium may induce clay dispersion, aggregate slacking and decrease the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the soil. The main objective of this research is to quantify the effect of water quality perturbation occurred by desalination-derived wastewater when introduced to the well-established chemical equilibrium that prevails in long term wastewater irrigated soils.

Sharon Chemweno

The research aims to investigate the physiological plant responses to salinity and nitrogen stress on grafted tomato.

Shuo Dong

Grapevines salt tolerant rootstocks has been used in this research in order to comprehend the plant metabolic response under long-term salt stress condition. The main objective of this research is to assess the adaptive strategy adopted by different grape rootstock varieties in response to salinity and mediated in the above ground tissue physiology and metabolism.

Tzofia Maymon

The phytohormone Abscisic acid (ABA) is the primary regulator in response to abiotic stresses, primarily to drought and salinity. In this research it was studied the factors affecting the stability of the ABI4 protein in Arabidopsis plants, especially NaCl, using transgenic lines that overexpressed ABI4-eGFP driven by a constitutive highly expressed CaMV 35S promoter.

Research Projects

2021 Winners

Avinash Sharma

Aye Nyein Ko

Bupur Swetha

Doron Kalisman

Jeevan Kumar

Prashanth Kakarla

Sharon Chemweno

Tali Neiger

Tsfaye Asmare

Tsofya Maymon

Yaniv Lupo

Lingling Wen

Kaining Zhou

2020 Winners

Alon Shlisser

Avinash Sharma

Chao Song

Kaining Zou

Ling Ling Wen

Prashant Kakarla

Robert Neufeld

Sharon Chemweno

Shuo Dong

Tzofia Maymon