Learning from halophytes: physiological basis and strategies to improve abiotic stress tolerance in crops

BACKGROUND: Global annual losses in agricultural production from salt-affected land are in excess of US$12 billion and rising. At the same time, a significant amount of arable land is becoming lost to urban sprawl, forcing agricultural production into marginal areas. Consequently, there is a need for a major breakthrough in crop breeding for salinity tolerance. Given the limited range of genetic diversity in this trait within traditional crops, stress tolerance genes and mechanisms must be identified in extremophiles and then introduced into traditional crops. SCOPE AND CONCLUSIONS: This review argues that learning from halophytes may be a promising way of achieving this goal. The paper is focused around two…

• GR
  Grains Research and Development Corporation
• AR
  Australian Research Council