James W. O'Leary. Professor, Department of Plant Sciences. Ph.D., Duke University. Water relations and stress physiology, especially use of halophytes to study adaptive responses to salinity.

 

*********

 

James W. O'Leary. Professor, Department of Plant Sciences. Ph.D., Duke University. (80% Research; 20% Instruction)

Office: Marley, #441A (621-7154)

Laboratory: Marley, #419 (621-1718)

OALS: 741-1691

e-mail: joleary@u.arizona.edu


Water relations and stress physiology, especially use of halophytes to study adaptive responses to salinity.

My research interests always have involved some aspect of plant water relations. For many years, we studied water uptake, transport, and loss from plants, and the responses of plants to water deficits created both by inadequate water supplies or excessive salinity.

During the past 15 years, my research has been almost exclusively devoted to halophyte biology. The interest in halophytes has been two-fold. On the one hand, we have been investigating the potential of domesticating halophytes for use as crops that could be irrigated with highly saline water. We have viewed that as a productive alternative approach to developing salt tolerant crops. That is, rather than trying to introduce high tolerance to salinity into plants that already have excellent crop characteristics, we have proposed introducing crop characteristics into plants that already have extremely high tolerance to salinity. On the other hand, we view halophytes as excellent tools to use to study salt tolerance. These are plants that have successfully adapted to high salinity, and we hope to learn more about the mechanisms involved in salt tolerance by studying the physiology of these plants.

Glenn, E.P., J.W. O'Leary, M.C. Watson, T.L. Thompson and R.O. Kuehl. 1991. Salicornia bigelovii Torr.: An oilseed halophyte for seawater irrigation. Science 251: 1065-1067.

Glenn, E.P., M.C. Watson, J.W. O'Leary and R.D. Axelson. 1992. Comparison of salt tolerance and osmotic adjustment of low-sodium and high-sodium subspecies of the halophyte, Atriplex canescens. Plant, Cell and Environment 15:711-718.

O'Leary, J.W. 1994. The agricultural use of native plants on problem soils, pp 127-143 in Soil Mineral Stresses: Approaches to Crop Improvement, ed. by A. Yeo and T. Flowers. Springer.

O'Leary, J.W. 1994. Adaptive components of salt tolerance, pp 577-585 in Handbook of Plant and Crop Physiology, ed. by M. Pessarakli. Marcel Dekker.

 

O'Leary, J.W. and E.P. Glenn. 1994. Global distribution and potential for halophytes, pp. 7-17 in V.R. Squires and A. Ayoub (eds.), Halophytes as a resource for livestock and rehabilitation of degraded lands. Kluwer.

El Haddad, E.H.M. and J.W. O'Leary. 1994. Effect of salinity and K/Na ratio of irrigation water on growth and solute content of Atriplex amnicola and Sorghum bicolor. Irrigation Science 14:127-133.

Ashraf, M. and J.W. O'Leary. 1994. Does pattern of ion accumulation vary in alfalfa at different growth stages? J. Plant Nutrition. 17(8):1443-1461.

Ashraf, M. and J.W. O'Leary. 1994. Ion distribution in leaves of varying ages in salt tolerant and salt sensitive lines of alfalfa under salt stress. J. Plant Nutrition. 17(8):1463-1476.

O'Leary, J.W. 1995. Ecophysiology of roots of halophytes, pp. 845-858 in Plant roots: the hidden half, 2nd ed., ed. by Y. Waisel, A. Eshel, and U. Kafkafi. Marcel Dekker.

Ashraf, M. and J.W. O'Leary. 1995. Distribution of cations in leaves of salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive lines of sunflower under saline conditions. J. Plant Nutrition 18(12): (in press)

Pockman, W.T., J.S. Sperry, and J.W. O’Leary. 1995. Sustained and significant negative water pressure in xylem. Nature 378:715-716.

 

Ayala, F. and J. O’Leary. 1995. Growth and physiology of Salicornia bigelovii Torr. at suboptimal salinity. Intern. J. of Plant Sciences 156:197-205.

 

Glenn, E., R. Pfister, J. Brown, T. Thompson, and J.W. O’Leary. 1996. Na and K accumulation and salt tolerance of Atriplex canescens genotypes. Am J. Botany 83:997-1005.

 

Ayala, F., J.W. O’Leary, and K.S. Schumaker. 1996. Increased vacuolar and plasma membrane H+ -ATPase activities in Salicornia bigelovii Torr. in response to NaCl. J. Exper. Botany 47:25-32.

 

O’Leary, J.W. 1996. Ecophysiology of roots of halophytes, pp. 845-858 in Waisel, Y., A. Eshel, and U. Kafkafi (eds.), Plant Roots: The Hidden Half. 2nd ed. Marcel Dekker.

 

Ashraf, M. and J.W. O’Leary. 1997. Responses of a salt-tolerant and a salt-sensitive line of sunflower to varying sodium/calcium ratios in saline sand culture. J. Plant Nutrition 20:361-377.

 

Ayala, F., M. Ashraf, and J.W. O’Leary. 1997. Plasma membrane H+ -ATPase activity in salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive lines of spring wheat. Acta Botanica Neerlandica 46:315-324.

 

Glenn, E.P., J. Brown, and J.W. O’Leary. 1998. Irrigating crops with seawater. Scientific American 279:76-81.