Breeding Mustard (Brassica juncea) for Salt Tolerance: Problems and Prospects

Abstract

Salt stress is currently one of the most critical factors, reducing agricultural production. Indian mustard (Brassica juncea) is a major oilseed crop in these areas. However, salt affects as much as 50–90% worldwide yield reduction. Salt tolerance is a very complex factor controlled by a number of independent and/or interdependent mechanisms and genetic modification that lead to many changes in physiology and biochemistry at the cellular level. The classical methods of plant breeding for salt tolerance involves the widespread use of inter and intraspecific variations in the available germplasm which is essential for any crop development program. This large germplasm is then tested under various salt levels in microplots, which is a quick, reliable, reproducible and inexpensive method of salt tolerance. Genotypes that have shown better indications of stress tolerance without significant yield reduction are considered to be tolerant and are also used as potential donor in the breeding programs. In this way, ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (ICAR-CSSRI), Karnal developed and produced five varieties of Indian mustard that tolerate high salt namely, CS 52, CS 54, CS 56, CS 58 and CS 60 in the country, and many other high-quality pipeline lines exploration and development. These salt-tolerant species work better under conditions of salt stress due to various manipulations (physiology, genes and molecular level) to fight salt stress has led to detrimental effects. Recent molecular tools to add classical breeding systems to improve saline-tolerant mustard varieties in a short span of time, including the Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) and backcrossing, that have helped using simple sequence repeats (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) that control the polygenic traits like tolerance of salt and seed yield.

High throughput phenotyping of functional traits and key indices for selection of salt tolerant Mustard [Brassica juncea (L.) Czern & Coss] genotypes

“…As a result, with rising salt stress compared to the control, all RILs showed a significantly lower CO 2 assimilation rate (P < 0.05). Harmful effects of salinity on the photosynthetic system directly resulted in non‐stomatal suppression of photosynthesis, which is independent of stomatal closure, decreased stomatal conductance, and restricted availability of CO 2 for carboxylation process in the salt‐sensitive mustard RILs and sensitive parent (Singh et al, 2021). Other potential causes for the salinity‐induced decline in photosynthetic features include changes to cytoplasmic architectures, negative feedback of lower sink activity associated with sluggish transport of photosynthates, and changes in the activities of enzymes (Singh et al, 2021).…”

“…Different fatty acid compositions are crucial for the transportation of protective substances like glycine‐betaine. In the Indian mustard breeding program for seed quality criteria, the genotypes that demonstrated the high amount of oil, protein, crude fiber content, and least amount of increase in erucic acid content may be employed as possible donors (Singh et al, 2013; Singh et al, 2014; Singh et al, 2021).…”

“…Globally, India ranked second in rapeseed‐mustard cultivation after China and third in production behind Canada and China (Kumari et al, 2019). Worldwide production, yield, and acreage of rapeseed‐mustard were 72.42 mt, 1974 kg/ha, and 36.68 mha, respectively (Singh et al, 2021). It ranks India's third‐largest edible oilseed crop after peanut and soybean, which accounts for 24.36% of the country's oilseed market among nine edible oilseed crops.…”

Screening of mustard (Brassica juncea) varieties under different quality of saline water irrigation in semi-arid conditions of Haryana

“…Several researchers have reported that growing crops under saline conditions causes a significant reduction in plant and growth, crop yield (Zamani et al, 2011;Shanker et al, 2016;Priyanka et al, 2022;Harisha et al, 2022) as well as economic losses (Priyanka et al, 2020). The reduction in crop yield is mainly due to osmotic effects, specific ions effect, nutrient imbalance, and ion toxicity (Ankush et al, 2021;Singh et al, 2021). Proper selection of crop varieties, appropriate method of irrigation, on-farm agronomic practices, and adequate use of soil amendments, and other organic manures are suitable to sustain crop production in long term under poor quality water irrigation (Sharma and Minhas, 2005).…”

“…Although, mustard is a salt tolerant crop among the oilseed crops, but their production is highly affected by salinity (Ashraf and McNeilly, 2004). However, the yield of mustard under saline water irrigation can be improved by cultivating the right salt tolerant varieties with balanced use of saline water (Singh et al, 2021). Ahmadi and Ardekhani, 2006 conducted a laboratory/greenhouse and field experiments to evaluate the -1 effects of salinity levels ranging from 1 to 12 dS m on germination rate, 8 leaf seedling dry matter, seed yield, and seed oil content of the 8 Canola (Brassica napus) cultivars: ACSN1, Falcon, Shirali, Ceres, Tower, Cobra, Global, and Oyerka.…”