Ebony Ebony Ebony is a dense black hardwood, most commonly yielded by several different species in the genus "Diospyros", which also contains the persimmons. Ebony is dense enough to sink in water. It is finely-textured and has a very smooth finish when polished, making it valuable as an ornamental wood. The word "ebony" comes from the Ancient Egyptian "hbny", through the Ancient Greek ("ébenos"), into Latin and Middle English. Species of ebony include "Diospyros ebenum" (Ceylon ebony), native to southern India and Sri Lanka; "Diospyros crassiflora" (Gabon ebony), native to western Africa; and "Diospyros celebica" (Makassar ebony), native to Indonesia and
Genetically modified tomato cold and drought tolerance in transgenic "Arabidopsis thaliana" plants, was inserted into the tomato. This resulted in increased drought tolerance, but did not appear to have any effect on cold tolerance. Overexpressing a vacuolar Na/H antiport ("AtNHX1") from "A. thaliana" lead to salt accumulating in the leaves of the plants, but not in the fruit and allowed them to grow more in salt solutions than wildtype plants. They were the first salt-tolerant, edible plants ever created. Tobacco osmotic genes overexpressed in tomatoes produced plants that held a higher water content than wildtype plants increasing tolerance to drought and salt stress.