An Outlook on the Chenopodium Quinoa Willd (Quinoa) Plant and the Role of the in Vitro Culture and Nanotechnology in Mitigation of Salinity Stress: A Review

Abstract

Climate change and scarcity of water resources in many countries of the Middle East have led to a drastic decline in the quantities of the main crops and exacerbated the problem of soil salinity. Therefore, it is imperative to find alternative crops that would enhance food security and can tolerate abiotic stresses such as soil salinization. Quinoa is a multi-purpose crop, grown mainly because of its historical, ecological, economic, and high nutritional value. The plant is highly adapted to different environments, and it can be grown in areas with marginal soils that are poor in rainwater. The emergence of this crop's importance and its distinctive properties began in the seventies of the last century. So, there is a need to increase this crop production under salinity conditions using new technology. The plant tissue culture can play an important role to give suitable conditions to study the plant responses to salinity stress via using different factors such as nanoparticles and others. Beside that, the other factors and environmental conditions can be easily controlled in vitro which makes the study easier. In this review, the description and response of the quinoa plant to salinity stress were summarized. Furthermore, the ability to use plant tissue culture and study the effect of adding nanoparticles (NPs) to the culture media to increase salt tolerance was the hot spot of this review. This was to find out the importance of nanoparticles and the in vitro plant tissue culture to increase the quinoa tolerance against salinity stress.