Casparian bands and suberin lamellae: Key targets for breeding salt tolerant crops?

Soil salinity seriously restricts agricultural production, especially for salt-sensitive crops. Understanding salttolerant plants will open new opportunities to crop breeders in attempts to increase salt tolerance in conventional crops. However, until now, few fundamental research findings related to halophytes have been applied to crop plants. Research has shown that apoplastic barriers, including Casparian bands (CBs) and suberin lamellae (SL), play an important role in Na+ and Cl- exclusion in both a few reported cases in halophytes and in some crop plants. In this paper, we discuss the role of CBs and SL in ion exclusion during plant salt tolerance, to evaluate whether they should be a key target for breeding salt-tolerant crops.

Automated summary

This paper discusses the role of apoplastic barriers (including Casparian bands and suberin lamellae) in ion exclusion during plant salt tolerance, evaluating whether they should be a key target for breeding salt-tolerant crops.