PubMed · 2026-04-23
Wild barley relatives survive in salty, waterlogged soils where cultivated barley dies — and researchers have pinpointed the root-level tricks that make this possible, opening a path to more flood- and salt-tolerant crops.
Wild maritime barley (H. marinum) accumulated the lowest concentrations of sodium and chloride in both roots and shoots while retaining the highest potassium levels — a chemical balancing act that kept cells functioning.
Cultivated barley (H. vulgare) failed to survive under combined salt and waterlogging, while the two wild species showed graded tolerance, confirming that domestication eroded key stress-resilience traits.
Salt exposure triggered increased lateral root branching in wild barley, physically sequestering excess sodium in side-root tissue and blocking its movement to photosynthetically active leaves.
