Molecular mechanisms of salinity tolerance in rice
Tianxiao Chen,
Sergey Shabala,
Yanan Niu,
Zhong-Hua Chen,
Lana Shabala,
Holger Meinke,
Gayatri Venkataraman,
Ashwani Pareek,
Jianlong Xu,
Meixue Zhou
Affiliations
Tianxiao Chen
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 1375, Prospect, TAS 7250, Australia; Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, Guangdong, China; Institute of Crop Sciences/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China
Sergey Shabala
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 1375, Prospect, TAS 7250, Australia; International Research Centre for Environmental Membrane Biology, Foshan University, Foshan 528000, Guangdong, China
Yanan Niu
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 1375, Prospect, TAS 7250, Australia
Zhong-Hua Chen
School of Science, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia
Lana Shabala
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 1375, Prospect, TAS 7250, Australia
Holger Meinke
University of Tasmania, Private Bag 51, Hobart, TAS 7001, Australia
Gayatri Venkataraman
Plant Molecular Biology Laboratory, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, III Cross Street, Taramani Institutional Area, Chennai 600113, India
Ashwani Pareek
School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi 110067, India; National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali 140306, India
Jianlong Xu
Guangdong Laboratory of Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Genome Analysis Laboratory of the Ministry of Agriculture, Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Shenzhen 518120, Guangdong, China; Institute of Crop Sciences/National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetic Improvement, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, China; Corresponding authors.
Meixue Zhou
Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 1375, Prospect, TAS 7250, Australia; Corresponding authors.
Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses which impose constraints to plant growth and production. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops and a model monocot plant. Its production is expanding into regions that are affected by soil salinity, requiring cultivars more tolerant to saline conditions. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of such tolerance could lay a foundation for varietal improvement of salt tolerance in rice. In spite of extensive studies exploring the mechanism of salt tolerance, there has been limited progress in breeding for increased salinity tolerance. In this review, we summarize the information about the major molecular mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance in rice and further discuss the limitations in breeding for salinity tolerance. We show that numerous gene families and interaction networks are involved in the regulation of rice responses to salinity, prompting a need for a comprehensive functional analysis. We also show that most studies are based on whole-plant level analyses with only a few reports focused on tissue- and/or cell-specific gene expression. More details of salt-responsive channel and transporter activities at tissue- and cell-specific level still need to be documented before these traits can be incorporated into elite rice germplasm. Thus, future studies should focus on diversity of available genetic resources and, particular, wild rice relatives, to re-incorporate salinity tolerance traits lost during domestication.
