Drought and salinity stress interactions: An overview

The effects of drought and salinity stresses in plants are studied extensively at the physiological and molecular levels. The interest in these two abiotic stresses implies their profound threat to agricultural production particularly on rice. However, most studies deal with the single effect of each stress. Under natural condition, a single stress factor does not exist. For more realistic gene exploration and with the aim of producing transgenic plants tolerant to the combined stresses, plant biologists must address the conditions that will likely approximate that of the natural environment. A thorough characterization and identification of genes both operating under these stresses will further enhance our understanding of plant, adaptation for these stresses and contribute in the progress of molecular breeding. A single stress approach may no longer be deemed practical in the 21(st) century. We thus advocate the use of a multi-stress research approach. How to carry out this kind of research hasyet to be done due to the complexity of its nature. A novel approach to study the interactions of combined drought and salinity stresses, for instance, will be a very useful tool for exploring genes operating in both.