Chapters authored
Approaches to Enhance Salt Stress Tolerance in Wheat
Wheat is consumed as a staple food by more than 36% of world population. Wheat provides nearly 55% of the carbohydrates and 20% of the food calories consumed globally. The productivity of wheat is often adversely affected by salt stress which is associated with decreased germination percentage, reduced growth, altered reproductive behavior, altered enzymatic activity, disrupted photosynthesis, damage of ultrastructure of cellular components, hormonal imbalance, and oxidative stress. Different approaches have been adopted to improve plant performance under salt stress: introduction of genes, screening of better performing genotypes, and crop improvement through conventional breeding methods which are often not so successful and suitable due to time-consuming or reduction of plant vigor with the succession of time. Uses of exogenous phytoprotectants, seed priming, nutrient management, and application of plant hormone are convenient for improving plant performances. This chapter reviews the mechanism of damage of wheat plants under salt stress and also the recent approaches to improve growth and productivity of salt-affected wheat plants emphasizing the use of exogenous phytoprotectants from the available literature.
Part of the book: Wheat Improvement, Management and Utilization
Salicylic Acid: An All-Rounder in Regulating Abiotic Stress Responses in Plants
Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenous growth regulator of phenolic nature and also a signaling molecule, which participates in the regulation of physiological processes in plants such as growth, photosynthesis, and other metabolic processes. Several studies support a major role of SA in modulating the plant response to various abiotic stresses. It is a well-founded fact that SA potentially generates a wide array of metabolic responses in plants and also affects plant-water relations. This molecule also found to be very active in mitigating oxidative stress under adverse environmental conditions. Since abiotic stress remained the greatest constraints for crop production worldwide, finding effective approaches is an important task for plant biologists. Hence, understanding the physiological role of SA would help in developing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. In this chapter, we will shed light on the recent progress on the regulatory role of SA in mitigating abiotic stress.
Part of the book: Phytohormones
Salt Stress Responses and Tolerance in Soybean
Soybean is one of the major oil crops with multiple uses which is gaining popularity worldwide. Apart from the edible oil, this crop provides various food materials for humans as well as feeds and fodder for animals. Although soybean is suitable for a wide range of soils and climates, it is sensitive to different abiotic stress such as salinity, drought, metal/metalloid toxicity, and extreme temperatures. Among them, soil salinity is one of the major threats to soybean production and the higher yield of soybean is often limited by salt stress. Salt stress negatively affects soybean seedling establishment, growth, physiology, metabolism, and the ultimate yield and quality of crops. At cellular level, salt stress results in the excess generation of reactive oxygen species and creates oxidative stress. However, these responses are greatly varied among the genotypes. Therefore, finding the precise plant responses and appropriate adaptive features is very important to develop salt tolerant soybean varieties. In this connection, researchers have reported many physiological, molecular, and agronomic approaches in enhancing salt tolerance in soybean. However, these endeavors are still in the primary stage and need to be fine-tuned. In this chapter, we summarized the recent reports on the soybean responses to salt stress and the different mechanisms to confer stress tolerance.
Part of the book: Plant Stress Physiology