Salinity Stress in Potato: Understanding Physiological, Biochemical and Molecular Responses

Abstract

Among abiotic stresses, salinity is a major global threat to agriculture, causing severe damage to crop production and productivity. Potato (Solanum tuberosum) is regarded as a future food crop by FAO to ensure food security, which is severely affected by salinity. The growth of the potato plant is inhibited under salt stress due to osmotic stress-induced ion toxicity. Salinity-mediated osmotic stress leads to physiological changes in the plant, including nutrient imbalance, impairment in detoxifying reactive oxygen species (ROS), membrane damage, and reduced photosynthetic activities. Several physiological and biochemical phenomena, such as the maintenance of plant water status, transpiration, respiration, water use efficiency, hormonal balance, leaf area, germination, and antioxidants production are adversely affected. The ROS under salinity stress leads to the increased plasma membrane permeability and extravasations of substances, which causes water imbalance and plasmolysis. However, potato plants cope with salinity mediated oxidative stress conditions by enhancing both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities. The osmoprotectants, such as proline, polyols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, lactitol, and maltitol), and quaternary ammonium compound (glycine betaine) are synthesized to overcome the adverse effect of salinity. The salinity response and tolerance include complex and multifaceted mechanisms that are controlled by multiple proteins and their interactions. This review aims to redraw the attention of researchers to explore the current physiological, biochemical and molecular responses and subsequently develop potential mitigation strategies against salt stress in potatoes.

Approaches Involved in the Vegetable Crops Salt Stress Tolerance Improvement: Present Status and Way Ahead

“…The most common of them include membrane damage, leakage of substances causing water imbalance and plasmolysis, disturbance in ROS detoxification system, changes in nutrient flux and dynamics, and photosynthetic attributes. These changes ultimately affect the physiological activities like respiration, photosynthesis, transpiration, hormonal regulation, water use efficiency, germination, production of antioxidants, and plasma membrane permeability (Chourasia et al, 2021). The most common approach adopted by plants during such extreme conditions is transcriptional reprogramming of stress responsive genes (Aamir et al, 2017;Tolosa and Zhang, 2020), although the conventional breeding approaches have helped a lot in developing stress-tolerant breeds of vegetables.…”

Impacts, Tolerance, Adaptation, and Mitigation of Heat Stress on Wheat under Changing Climates

“…Genomics evolved in diverse stages from first generation (1970s) to next generation (20th Century) to third generation sequencing (21st Century) [ 203 ]. Structural genomics helps to identify structure of a gene, prompter sequences, and other regulatory sequences located upstream or downstream [ 204 ], whereas functional genomics facilitate gene function at a molecular level and the type of tolerance (HS, salt, drought) it provides [ 205 , 206 ]. Therefore, genomics aids in providing genome wide network information of genes and their interaction with other complex stress-resilient traits [ 207 ].…”

Impact of Exogenously Sprayed Antioxidants on Physio-Biochemical, Agronomic, and Quality Parameters of Potato in Salt-Affected Soil

“…Salinity is one of the harsh environmental stresses that destructively impact potato growth and production, particularly in arid regions [3]. Large areas of cultivated soils are salt affected, mainly in arid regions due to high evaporation, low precipitation, poor drainage, poor irrigation practices, rising water tables, or using saline water in irrigation [4,5].…”