Abstract
Agricultural land is extensively affected by salinity stress either due to natural phenomena or by agricultural practices. Saline stress possesses two major threats to crop growth: osmotic stress and oxidative stress. The response of these changes is often accompanied by variety of symptoms, such as the decrease in leaf area and internode length and increase in leaf thickness and succulence, abscission of leaves, and necrosis of root and shoot. Salinity also delays the potential physiological activities, such as photosynthesis, transpiration, phytohormonal functions, metabolic pathways, and gene/protein functions. However, crops in response to salinity stress adopt counter cascade mechanisms to tackle salinity stress incursion, whilst continuous exposure to saline stress overcomes the defense mechanism system which results in cell death and compromises the function of essential organelles in crops. To overcome the salinity, a large number of studies have been conducted on silicon (Si); one of the beneficial elements in the Earth’s crust. Si application has been found to mitigate salinity stress and improve plant growth and development, involving signaling transduction pathways of various organelles and other molecular mechanisms. A large number of studies have been conducted on several agricultural crops, whereas limited information is available on horticultural crops. In the present review article, we have summarized the potential role of Si in mitigating salinity stress in horticultural crops and possible mechanism of Si-associated improvements in them. The present review also scrutinizes the need of future research to evaluate the role of Si and gaps to saline stress in horticultural crops for their improvement.
Highlights
Salinity is a major threat to agriculture under irrigation, thereby instigating damage and inhibition of crop growth and development
In okra roots that were under salinity stress (7 days), foliar application of Si has been found to increase Si with the production of (SOD), POD, and CAT activities leading to a decrease in lipid peroxidation; varied response were noted across genotypes [138]
The signaling pathways and co-relation of salt stress and Si-efficiency has been observed in a number of agronomical crops like rice, wheat, soybean, etc
Summary
Salinity is a major threat to agriculture under irrigation, thereby instigating damage and inhibition of crop growth and development. Since the proteomics approach deals with the identification and characterization of stress inducible proteins, detailed research on the efficiency of silicon to alleviate salinity stress employing a proteomic approach can help us to comprehensively illustrate the process of stress tolerance in plants induced by Si. In the first half of the review, we discuss the plant cellular mechanisms that are involved in salinity stress tolerance at the physiological and biochemical level, such as ROS production and detoxification, role of ion pumps, phytohormones, transcription factors, osmoprotectant, etc. In the second half of the review, we focus on cross-talk, signaling pathways, and tolerance mechanism of plants towards salinity stress by elucidating the interaction between silicon and salinity stress in horticultural crops employing a proteomic approach. The ROS production center in plants is organelles, such as chloroplasts, mitochondria, and peroxisomes
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