Tapping the potential of Solanum lycopersicum L. pertaining to salinity tolerance: perspectives and challenges

Abstract

Crop breeding for abiotic stress tolerance entails introgression of stress tolerant genes into the cultivated types. With the augmentation in salt tolerance, a comparatively high production can be achieved even when the plants are exposed to salinity stress. It will aid in addressing the demand–supply gap concerning high-quality food for the ever-growing global population. Tomato, a crop of high agro-economic significance is largely affected by salt stress. Various landraces and wild relatives of locally-adapted cultivars of tomato have revealed the potential to tolerate climate adversities under natural conditions without compromising their growth and yield. The present review highlights the advancement in the genomics assisted breeding involving the wild relatives of tomato for their utilization in exploiting the salt stress tolerance. Further, we have thrown some light uponthe potential of biotechnological tools such as allele mining, QTL mapping, and OMICS technology with emphasis on their role in identification of probable stress-perceptive genes and transcription factors in wild relatives of tomato. The coordinative function of genomics and transcriptomics as a potential tool to maximize and expedite the conservation of wild relatives of tomato is the need of the hour for achieving the crop improvement and long-term sustainability.