Towards salinity tolerance in Brassica: an overview

Abstract

Among the various abiotic stresses limiting the crop productivity, salinity stress is a major problem, which needs to be addressed and answered urgently. Since members of Brassicaceae are important contributor to total oilseed production, there is an immediate need being felt to raise Brassica plants which would be more suitable for saline and dry lands in years to come. One of the suggested way to develop salinity tolerant Brassica plants is to make use of the broad gene pool available within the family. Efforts of breeders have been successful in such endeavors to a large extent and several salinity tolerant Brassica genotypes have been developed within India and elsewhere. On the other hand, transgenic technology will undoubtedly continue to aid the search for the cellular mechanisms that confer tolerance, but the complexity of the trait is likely to mean that the road to engineer such tolerance into sensitive species will not be easy. However, with increasing number of reports available for suitable genetic transformation for various Brassica genotypes, there is a hope that salinity tolerance can be improved in this important crop plant. In this direction, the complete genome sequence of related wild plants such as Arabidopsis or crop plants such as rice can also serve as a platform for identification of "candidate genes". Recently, complete genome sequencing of the Brassica genomes has also been initiated with the view that availability of such useful information can pave way towards raising Brassica with improved tolerance towards these stresses. In the present paper, we discuss the success obtained so far; in raising brassica genotypes with improved salinity tolerance employing both plant breeding and/or genetic engineering tools.

Alleviation of salinity stress in broccoli using foliar urea or methyl-jasmonate: analysis of growth, gas exchange, and isotope composition

“…In response to salinity stress, endogenous Na ? concentration increased in the various Brassica genotypes (Purty et al 2008). Walia et al (2007) showed that salinized barley plants treated with JA accumulated low levels of Na ?…”

“…The loss of farmable land due to salinisation is in direct conflict with the growing population, posing a major challenge for maintaining world food supplies (Purty et al 2008). The reduction in plant growth and yield is mainly due to an osmotic effect of the accumulation of salts near the root zone whereas the build up of toxic saline ions in plant tissues is responsible for the progressive impairment of several physiological processes (Munns 2002).…”

Structural and Expression Analysis of Salinity Stress Responsive Phosphoserine Phosphatase from Brassica juncea (L.)

“…Of the various abiotic stresses plant perceive both osmotic and as well ionic stress when subjected to salinity stress [47,48]. The response to these stresses can be seen to occur at cellular, biochemical or molecular level.…”

Plant abiotic stress: deciphering remedial strategies for emerging problem

“…The transgenic approach allows scientists to study mechanisms governing stress tolerance by either over expression or antisense suppression of the transgene into the model plant species and to monitor the phenotypical and biochemical changes before and after a specific abiotic stress treatment (Bartels and Phillips 2010;Mantri et al 2012). It has met with preliminary success, and several varieties of stress tolerant lines have been produced in recent years, few of which have been utilized for further testing under field conditions (Purty et al 2008;Atkinson and Urwin 2012). This approach seems a viable option for developing genotypes that can perform better under harsh environmental conditions particularly for complex nature of abiotic stress tolerance and reproductive barriers that limit transfer of favorable alleles from diverse genetic resources.…”