Salinity tolerance

Abstract

Saline soils reduce plant growth and crop yields. Plants have evolved a number of salinity tolerance strategies that allow them to survive and grow on saline soils, such as osmotic tolerance and ionic tolerance. To improve crop salinity tolerance it is first necessary to identify variation in salt tolerance mechanisms within plants, noting those plants with increased tolerance compared to current crop cultivars. QTL mapping is one approach to identify important salt tolerance genes through observation of plant responses to salinity stress. The majority of research into improving plant salinity tolerance has focused on characterising genes encoding proteins involved in either reducing the amount of Na+translocated from the root to the shoot, or on genes that encode proteins involved in sequestration of ions into vacuoles. Candidate genes for transformation into crops to improve salinity tolerance include those involved with the transport of ions.