Plant salt-tolerance mechanisms

Ulrich Deinlein; Aaron B Stephan; Tomoaki Horie; Wei Luo; Guohua Xu; Julian I Schroeder

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2014.02.001

Plant salt-tolerance mechanisms

Trends Plant Sci. 2014 Jun;19(6):371-9. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2014.02.001. Epub 2014 Mar 14.

Authors

Ulrich Deinlein¹, Aaron B Stephan¹, Tomoaki Horie², Wei Luo³, Guohua Xu⁴, Julian I Schroeder⁵

Affiliations

¹ Division of Biological Sciences, Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA.
² Division of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Nagano 386-8567, Japan.
³ Division of Biological Sciences, Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA; State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, MOA Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization in Lower-Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Germplasm Enhancement, MOA Key Laboratory of Plant Nutrition and Fertilization in Lower-Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China.
⁵ Division of Biological Sciences, Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA. Electronic address: [email protected].

Abstract

Crop performance is severely affected by high salt concentrations in soils. To engineer more salt-tolerant plants it is crucial to unravel the key components of the plant salt-tolerance network. Here we review our understanding of the core salt-tolerance mechanisms in plants. Recent studies have shown that stress sensing and signaling components can play important roles in regulating the plant salinity stress response. We also review key Na+ transport and detoxification pathways and the impact of epigenetic chromatin modifications on salinity tolerance. In addition, we discuss the progress that has been made towards engineering salt tolerance in crops, including marker-assisted selection and gene stacking techniques. We also identify key open questions that remain to be addressed in the future.

Keywords: NaCl; abiotic stress; biotechnology; engineering of salt-tolerant plants; plant salinity tolerance.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Review

MeSH terms

Crops, Agricultural / genetics
Crops, Agricultural / physiology
Gene Expression Regulation, Plant*
Plant Physiological Phenomena*
Plants / genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified / genetics
Plants, Genetically Modified / physiology
Salt Tolerance*
Sodium Chloride / metabolism*
Stress, Physiological

Substances

Sodium Chloride

Grants and funding

P42 ES010337/ES/NIEHS NIH HHS/United States