A Brief Overview of Plant Responses to Salt Stress

To grow or not to grow is a simplified decision plants make following a complex assessment when challenged by salt stress. The need to understand how plants determine this under salt stress has pressing importance as we are left with less arable land and diminishing freshwater resources available for conventional agriculture compounded by climate change. Studies done over decadal scales converge on salt tolerance being a complex trait that involves a coordinated response of transcriptional to physiological responses. Primarily using Arabidopsis, we have deciphered some of the key aspects that govern salt-stress responses. Now, we are at new frontiers to expand our knowledge base using naturally stress-adapted plants as primary targets of study to understand salt-stress adaptation at unprecedented levels empowered by new molecular tools and resources. In this commentary, we highlight the major mechanisms described by Zhao et al.1 in the first issue of The Innovation on plant salt-stress responses, in relation to new breakthrough research and emerging frontiers toward building salt-tolerant crops designed to fit the needs of a changing world.

Cite this article

Pantha, P. and Dassanayake, M. Living with Salt. The Innovation 1 (3), 100050 (2020). doi: 10.1016/j.xinn.2020.100050