fed, there are no rains." "Those particular date palms have an ability to withstand drought. So we will identify these palms and try to identify the genes that are responsible for drought tolerance. If we succeed we could produce small plantlets and eventually we would be able to plant these date palms in drought areas without the need for irrigation - they would survive on their own from the available rainwater. "You cannot say this is a forest species but still you'll get something that is similar to a forest if we plant these date palms together. We could bring forests to the desert, and this has never been possible before." Thupran plans to send out survey teams to bring offshoots from palms back to the laboratory where the drought-resistance genes would be identified. Existing micro propagation techniques - where tissues are used to create plantlets that eventually grow into trees - would be employed. Tests would then be carried out on the offspring to check that the desired genes were present. The same methods would be used to produce saltwater-tolerant trees and palms that are resistant to the red palm weevil. "The weevil is a very serious and destructive pest which is spreading alarmingly day by day and year by year," added Thupran. "A single weevil can travel 1km a day and there are no effective measures that can control it." "I have seen many palms in the Middle East that were very healthy then all of a sudden you see the trunk is breaking in two. The weevil attacks the trunk and feeds on the interior tissue and the tree breaks down." "If you see 100 date palms of the same variety and age and grown with the same management practices in a row and 90 are infested while five or 10 are not, there is a reason behind that. So we locate these palms. We will get the offshoots and examine the tissue in the lab and try to identify which genes are responsible for the tolerance or the resistance." Thupran's funding will be paid out in installments over the next three years as he reaches a series of milestones. --MORE
