BookVinay Kumar, Shabir Hussain Wani, Penna Suprasanna, Lam-Son Phan Tran, editors.
Summary: Soil salinity is a key abiotic-stress and poses serious threats to crop yields and quality of produce. Owing to the underlying complexity, conventional breeding programs have met with limited success. Even genetic engineering approaches, via transferring/overexpressing a single 'direct action gene' per event did not yield optimal results. Nevertheless, the biotechnological advents in last decade coupled with the availability of genomic sequences of major crops and model plants have opened new vistas for understanding salinity-responses and improving salinity tolerance in important glycophytic crops. Our goal is to summarize these findings for those who wish to understand and target the molecular mechanisms for producing salt-tolerant and high-yielding crops. Through this 2-volume book series, we critically assess the potential venues for imparting salt stress tolerance to major crops in the post-genomic era. Accordingly, perspectives on improving crop salinity tolerance by targeting the sensory, ion-transport and signaling mechanisms were presented in Volume 1. Volume 2 now focuses on the potency of post-genomic era tools that include RNAi, genomic intervention, genome editing and systems biology approaches for producing salt tolerant crops.
Contents:
Intro; Preface; Contents; Contributors; About the Editors;
Chapter 1: Salinity Responses and Adaptive Mechanisms in Halophytes and Their Exploitation for Producing Salinity Tolerant Crops; 1.1 Breeding for Salinity Tolerance: Current Stand; 1.2 Strategies of Salt Resistance in Halophytes; 1.2.1 Tolerance Strategy or Osmotic Strategy; 1.2.2 Avoidance Strategy; 1.3 Learning from Signaling Pathways in Halophytes in Response to Salinity; 1.3.1 Regulation of Ion Homeostasis by SOS Signaling Pathway in Halophytes; 1.3.2 Vacuolar Compartmentalization System. 1.3.3 Osmolyte Biosynthesis Pathways: Opposite Regulation in Halophytes and Glycophytes 1.3.4 ROS Homeostasis; 1.4 Learning from the Acclimation of Halophytes to Their Natural Biotopes; 1.5 How Can We Exploit Regulation Pathways and Acclimation in Halophytes to Produce Salt Tolerant Crops?; 1.5.1 Over-Expression of Genes from Halophytes in Salt Sensitive Species; 1.5.2 H2O2 Priming; 1.5.3 Salinity Pre-treatment; 1.6 Conclusions and Perspectives; References;
Chapter 2: The Involvement of Different Secondary Metabolites in Salinity Tolerance of Crops; 2.1 Introduction. 2.1.1 Divisions of Plant Secondary Metabolites in Known Salt-Tolerant Plants 2.1.2 Role of Alkaloids in Salt Stress; 2.1.3 Role of Phenolic Compounds in Salt Stress; 2.2 Role Lignins in Salt Stress; 2.3 Role of Glucosinolates in Salt Stress; 2.4 The Essential Oils Under Salt Stress; 2.5 Tannins Under Salt Stress; 2.6 Manipulations/Genetic Engineering of Secondary Metabolites for Conferring Salinity Tolerance; 2.7 Conclusions; References;
Chapter 3: Exploring Halotolerant Rhizomicrobes as a Pool of Potent Genes for Engineering Salt Stress Tolerance in Crops; 3.1 Introduction. 3.2 Plant Salt Adaptation Mechanisms to the Salt-Stressed Conditions 3.3 Presence of Halotolerant or Halophilic Rhizomicrobes; 3.4 Halophilic Rhizomicrobe Adaptation Mechanisms to the Hypersaline Environments; 3.5 Root Halotolerant Microbial Inoculation and Plant Salt Tolerance; 3.5.1 Halotolerant Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR); 3.5.1.1 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Morphophysiological Alterations; 3.5.1.2 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Phytohormone Production; 3.5.1.3 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Osmolyte Accumulation. 3.5.1.4 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Ion Homeostasis and Nutrient Acquisition 3.5.1.5 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Antioxidative System; 3.5.1.6 Halotolerant PGPR-Induced Gene Expression; 3.5.2 Halotolerant Endophytic Bacteria; 3.5.3 Halotolerant Rhizobia; 3.5.4 Halotolerant Fungi; 3.6 Plant Salt Mitigation by Introducing Halotolerant Microbial Genes; 3.7 Conclusion and Future Perspectives; References;
Chapter 4: Regulation and Modification of the Epigenome for Enhanced Salinity Tolerance in Crop Plants; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Histone Acetylation; 4.3 Histone Methylation and Phosphorylation.