Chapter 40 - Rice Responses and Tolerance to Salt Stress: Deciphering the Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Salinity Adaptation

Abstract

Salt stress is considered a major abiotic stress that could limit rice productivity globally. Increasing exposure of soil salinity to rice plants leads to cascades of responses at both morph-physiological and molecular levels due to salt-induced osmotic and ionic stress. Rice is a salt-sensitive crop and the understanding of salt stress responses and tolerance mechanisms are important for the development of salt-resilient rice crops for sustaining crop productivity in the future. In this chapter, we summarize the advancements in rice plant research under salt stress. Significant scientific developments suggest that the underlying molecular mechanism of rice plants in response to salt stress is complex, polygenic, and dependant on multiple signaling cascades that govern rice plants salt stress responses and tolerance mechanisms. Still, more research is needed in order to understand the perception of salt stress, differentiation of the interaction between rice development and salinity, and the signaling of key components of salt sensors to improve rice salt tolerance under field conditions.