SALT TOLERANCE OF PLANTS

Salinity is a complex phenomenon, understanding of which requires the joint efforts of soil scientists, physiologists, biochemists, biophysicists, ecologists, agronomists, geneticists and molecular biologists. This review outlines the main effects of salinity on plant growth, physiology and ecology. A wide variety of different responses to salinity have evolved in higher plants, making it difficult to make generalisations about mechanisms of tolerance and possible strategies for selecting salt-tolerant varieties. There are, however, a few basic models which help us to understand particular facets of salt tolerance. The challenge is to assemble our fragmentary knowledge of these individual responses into accurate models of the operation of whole plants. New analytical techniques which can be used at the single cell level, and increased application of both conventional and molecular genetics together with quantitative modelling are likely to advance this field in the next few years.