98????? Yenush The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty- four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twenty-four-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Lynne P. Yenush to work with Dr. Ramon Serrano at the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia in Spain on the study of yeast as a model system for understanding high salt tolerance in higher plants. The salination of irrigated land is a problem for the future of agriculture. Because arid land has low levels of precipitation and must rely on irrigation, the water evaporates and leaves a high concentration of salt in the soil. This increased salinity causes the soil to deteriorate, making it incompatible with plant growth. This research project will help understand the mechanism of salt toxicity and defense responses of crop plants, so genetic engineering strategies can be developed to improve crop growth in arid regions. Dr. Seranno has developed a model system for understanding the genetic basis of the evolution of this high salt tolerance in agriculturally important higher plants. ***
