Saline-Alkali Tolerance in Rice: Physiological Response, Molecular Mechanism, and QTL Identification and Application to Breeding
Ratan Kumar Ganapati,
Shahzad Amir Naveed,
Sundus Zafar,
Wensheng Wang,
Jianlong Xu
Affiliations
Ratan Kumar Ganapati
Institute of Crop Sciences, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Shahzad Amir Naveed
Institute of Crop Sciences, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Sundus Zafar
Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, China
Wensheng Wang
Institute of Crop Sciences, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Jianlong Xu
Institute of Crop Sciences, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Shenzhen Branch, Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, China; Corresponding author: , Institute of Crop Sciences, National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Salinity-alkalinity is incipient abiotic stress that impairs plant growth and development. Rice (Oryza sativa) is a major food crop greatly affected by soil salinity and alkalinity, requiring tolerant varieties in the saline-alkali prone areas. Understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms of saline-alkali tolerance paves the base for improving saline-alkali tolerance in rice and leads to progress in breeding. This review illustrated the physiological consequences, and molecular mechanisms especially signaling and function of regulating genes for saline-alkali tolerance in rice plants. We also discussed QTLs regarding saline-alkali tolerance accordingly and ways of deployment for improvement. More efforts are needed to identify and utilize the identified QTLs for saline-alkali tolerance in rice.
