title: Comprehensive phenotypic analysis of rice (Oryza sativa) response to salinity stress.
abstract: Increase in soil salinity levels is becoming a major cause of crop yield losses worldwide. Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most salt-sensitive cereal crop, and many studies have focused on rice salinity tolerance, but a global understanding of this crop's response to salinity is still lacking. We systematically analyzed phenotypic data previously collected for 56 rice genotypes to assess the extent to which rice uses three known salinity tolerance mechanisms: shoot-ion independent tolerance (or osmotic tolerance), ion exclusion, and tissue tolerance. In general, our analyses of different phenotypic traits agree with results of previous rice salinity tolerance studies. However, we also established that the three salinity tolerance mechanisms mentioned earlier appear among rice genotypes and that none of them is predominant. Against the pervasive view in the literature that the K(+) /Na(+) ratio is the most important trait in salinity tolerance, we found that the K(+) concentration was not significantly affected by salt stress in rice, which puts in question the importance of K(+) /Na(+) when analyzing rice salt stress response. Not only do our results contribute to improve our global understanding of salt stress response in an important crop, but we also use our results together with an extensive literature research to highlight some issues commonly observed in salinity stress tolerance studies and to propose solutions for future experiments.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and, IBET, 2781-901, Oeiras, Portugal.|Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Inês S
authors.initials: IS
authors.lastname: Pires
authors.affiliation: Center for Desert Agriculture, Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, 23955-6900, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
authors.forename: Sónia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Negrão
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, and, IBET, 2781-901, Oeiras, Portugal.
authors.forename: M Margarida
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Center for Genomics and Systems Biology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Purugganan
mesh_terms: D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000187:drug effects; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000187:drug effects; D005838:Genotype; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012275:Oryza / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D010641:Phenotype; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D054712:Salinity; D055049:Salt Tolerance / Q000235:genetics*; D012965:Sodium Chloride / Q000494:pharmacology; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D012987:Soil; D012965:Sodium Chloride