Italy is Europe's leading rice producer, accounting for roughly half of all harvests and producing approximately 1.5 million tons per year. Italian varieties, which are popular all over the world, suffer from an increase in the curve of water salinity in specific areas such as the Po Valley, where more than 95 percent of national production is concentrated. Excess salt in the soil can cause plant death or, more commonly, a decrease in productivity, and this phenomenon is calling into question the entire production chain, prompting research on food safety. To combat the effects of global warming, a study conducted by the Departmental Faculty of Science and Technology for Sustainable Development and One Health at the Campus Bio-Medico University of Rome identifies the molecular attributes of resistance to increased salinity in some of the main varieties of Italian rice and investigates the characteristics that a rice plant must possess in order to continue growing and producing even in adverse climatic conditions. The study focused on four varieties grown in Italy: two salt-tolerant varieties, Baldo and Onice, and two salt-sensitive varieties, Selenium and Vialone Nano. By analyzing molecular traits related to phenotypic traits such as distress symptoms and growth inhibition caused by soil salinization, researchers identified the ability to produce and accumulate antioxidants as the cause of increased tolerance to salt stress, and discovered that plants that can accumulate a higher amount of glutathione are better able to survive in a salt-rich environment. An antioxidant found in plant cells (but also in animals, fungi, and some bacteria) that protects against oxidative stress and cellular aging.
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