Plant hormones in salt stress tolerance

Plants, as a sessile organism, rely on the endogenous regulators for the modulation of growth and development under severe stress conditions for their survival. Plant hormones have long been considered as essential endogenous molecules involved in regulating plant development and tolerance or susceptibility of diverse stresses including salinity stress. Plants are frequently exposed to numerous adverse environmental factors such as drought, cold, heat and high salinity. Under high salinity, plants rapidly reduce the growth and developmental programs in response to the stress due to either the effects of specific ions on metabolism, or adverse water relations. Recent investigations on the functional roles of plant hormones in response to unfavorable environmental conditions have eventually unravel their potentials in coffering tolerance to such conditions including salinity stress. In this review, we will present recent progress of our understanding to the important role of plant hormones including abscisic acid (ABA), auxin, cytokinins (CK), brassinosteroids (BRs), jasmonate, gibberellin (GA) and ethylene for alleviation of salt stress in plants.