Journal
PLANTS-BASEL
Volume 12, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/plants12020221
Keywords
climate emergency; crops' wild relatives; glycophytes; halophytes; phytoremediation; salt stress; salt tolerance mechanisms
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Halophytes are valuable experimental systems for studying salt tolerance in plants and for genetic improvement of conventional crops. Soil salinity is a critical factor in global crop yield reduction, especially in the context of climate change.
Halophytes, wild plants adapted to highly saline natural environments, represent extremely useful-and, at present, underutilised-experimental systems with which to investigate the mechanisms of salt tolerance in plants at the anatomical, physiological, biochemical and molecular levels. They can also provide biotechnological tools for the genetic improvement of salt tolerance in our conventional crops, such as salt tolerance genes or salt-induced promoters. Furthermore, halophytes may constitute the basis of sustainable 'saline agriculture' through commercial cultivation after some breeding to improve agronomic traits. All these issues are relevant in the present context of climate emergency, as soil salinity is-together with drought-the most critical environmental factor in reducing crop yield worldwide. In fact, climate change represents the most serious challenge for agricultural production and food security in the near future. Several of the topics mentioned above-mainly referring to basic studies on salt tolerance mechanisms-are addressed in the articles published within this Special Issue.
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