Abstract
Adaptation to high salinity is achieved by cellular ion homeostasis which involves regulation of toxic sodium ion (Na+) and Chloride ion (Cl−) uptake, preventing the transport of these ions to the aerial parts of the plants and vacuolar sequestration of these toxic ions. Ion transporters have long been known to play roles in maintaining ion homeostasis. Na+ enters the cell through various voltage dependent selective and non-selective ion channels. High Na+ concentration in the plasma membrane is balanced either by uptake of potassium ion (K+) by various potassium importing channels, by salt exclusion mechanism or by sequestration of Na+ in the vacuoles. Therefore, the role of high-affinity potassium transporter, the salt overly sensitive pathway, the most well-defined Na+ exclusion pathway that exports Na+ from cell into xylem and tonoplast localized cation transporters that compartmentalizes Na+ in vacuoles need to be studied in detail and applied to make the plant adaptable to saline soil. Knowledge on the regulation of expression of these transporters by the hormones, microRNAs and other non-coding RNAs can be utilized to manipulate the ion transport. Here, we reviewed paradigm of the ion transporters in salt stress signalling pathways from the recent and past studies aiding transformation of basic knowledge into biotechnological applications to generate engineered salt stress tolerant crops.
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Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge funding from National Institute of Plant Genome Research and resources to DelCon. PM acknowledges Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for fellowship. DC acknowledges J.C. Bose fellowship grant (JCB/2020/000014) from Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Government of India for funding this work. The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Malakar, P., Chattopadhyay, D. Adaptation of plants to salt stress: the role of the ion transporters. J. Plant Biochem. Biotechnol. 30, 668–683 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-021-00741-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13562-021-00741-6