The use of extremophyte models to select growth promoting traits during environmental stresses is a recognized yet an underutilized strategy to design stress-resilient plants. Schrenkiella parvula, a leading extremophyte model in Brassicaceae, can grow and complete its life cycle under multiple environmental stresses, including high salinity. While S. parvula is equipped with foundational genomic resources to identify genetic clues that potentially lead to stress adaptations at the phenome level, a comprehensive physiological and structural characterization of salt stress responses throughout its lifecycle is absent. We aimed to identify the influential traits that lead to resilient growth and strategic decisions to ensure survival of the species in an extreme environment, and examined salt-induced changes in the physiology and anatomy of S. parvula throughout its life cycle across multiple tissues. We found that S. parvula maintains or even enhances growth during various developmental stages at salt stress levels known to inhibit growth in Arabidopsis thaliana and most crops. The resilient growth of S. parvula was associated with key traits synergistically allowing continued primary root growth, expansion of xylem vessel elements across the root-shoot continuum, and the high capacity to maintain tissue water levels by developing larger and thicker leaves while facilitating continued photosynthesis during salt stress. In turn, the stress-resilient growth during the vegetative phase of S. parvula allowed a successful transition to a reproductive phase via early flowering followed by the development of larger siliques with viable seeds on salt-treated plants. Additionally, the success of self-fertilization in early flowering stages was dependent on salt-induced filament elongation. Our results suggest that the maintenance of leaf water status and enhancement of selfing in early flowers to ensure reproductive success are among the most influential traits that contribute to the extremophilic lifestyle of S. parvula in its natural habitat.
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