Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple crop that feeds more than one half of the world’s population and is the model system for monocotyledonous plants. However, rice is very sensitive to salinity and is the most salt sensitive cereal crop with a threshold of 3 dSm−1 for most cultivated varieties. Despite many attempts using different strategies to improve salinity tolerance in rice, the achievements so far are quite modest. This review aims to discuss challenges that hinder the improvement of salinity stress tolerance in rice as well as potential opportunities for enhancing salinity stress tolerance in this important crop.
Highlights
Salinity is a general term used to describe the presence of elevated levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulphates and bicarbonates in soil and water [1].With more than 830 million hectares of salt-affected land globally [2,3] (Figure 1) and approximately two million ha of land uncultivable due to excessive salinity added each year [4], salinity is a growing worldwide problem
We have already highlighted the challenges that hinder the improvement of salinity stress tolerance in rice including: (i) limited parental resources for conventional breeding; and (ii) the complexity of salinity tolerance leading to modest success in both marker assisted selection and genetic engineered approaches for enhanced salinity tolerance in rice
In a study of Australian wild rice growing in the natural floodplain environment, Wurm et al [160] found that the protein content of O. meridionalis and O. rufipogon was similar at 10% protein and higher than the 7% protein reported for a large number of pooled samples of O. sativa [160]
Summary
Salinity is a general term used to describe the presence of elevated levels of different salts such as sodium chloride, magnesium and calcium sulphates and bicarbonates in soil and water [1]. By 2050, the world’s population is predicted to reach 9.6 billion people and food production needs to increase approximately 70% by 2050 or 44 million metric tons annually to provide sufficient food for this population [7,8,9] This is a challenge because there is very little potential for future expansion of arable lands, whereas environmental stresses affecting crop production are increasing [10,11,12]. To help sustain the increasing population, crops with enhanced salinity tolerance must be developed to increase productivity on salt-affected lands. Some success has been reported crucial to enhance rice tolerance to salinity stress to enable this staple crop to provide enough food for enhanced salinity stress tolerance in rice, the achievements so far are quite modest. That hinder the success of the improvement of salinity stress tolerance in rice and identify potential opportunities for enhancing salinity stress tolerance in this important crop
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
