title: Plant salt-tolerance mechanisms.
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.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA.
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Deinlein
authors.affiliation: Division of Biological Sciences, Food and Fuel for the 21st Century Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA.
authors.forename: Aaron B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Stephan
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Biology, Faculty of Textile Science and Technology, Shinshu University, Nagano 386-8567, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoaki
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horie
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: 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.
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: 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: jischroeder@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Julian I
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Schroeder
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D055049:Salt Tolerance; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000378:metabolism*; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D012965:Sodium Chloride
keywords: NaCl; abiotic stress; biotechnology; engineering of salt-tolerant plants; plant salinity tolerance