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Eduardo Blumwald, a plant geneticist from the University of California at Davis, talks in this video about his efforts to find genes that boost salt tolerance in plants known as halophytes. The goal is to transfer such genes into crops such as rice, which are threatened by rising salinity in rice paddies. Pam Ronald, a plant pathologist also at Davis, explains the role that genetic engineering plays in identifying genes that can help threatened crops survive.
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