Regulation by arbuscular mycorrhizae of the integrated physiological response to salinity in plants: new challenges in physiological and molecular studies
Open Access
- 2 May 2012
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in Journal of Experimental Botany
- Vol. 63 (11), 4033-4044
- https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ers126
Abstract
Excessive salt accumulation in soils is a major ecological and agronomical problem, in particular in arid and semi-arid areas. Excessive soil salinity affects the establishment, development, and growth of plants, resulting in important losses in productivity. Plants have evolved biochemical and molecular mechanisms that may act in a concerted manner and constitute the integrated physiological response to soil salinity. These include the synthesis and accumulation of compatible solutes to avoid cell dehydration and maintain root water uptake, the regulation of ion homeostasis to control ion uptake by roots, compartmentation and transport into shoots, the fine regulation of water uptake and distribution to plant tissues by the action of aquaporins, the reduction of oxidative damage through improved antioxidant capacity and the maintenance of photosynthesis at values adequate for plant growth. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis can help the host plants to cope with the detrimental effects of high soil salinity. There is evidence that AM symbiosis affects and regulates several of the above mentioned mechanisms, but the molecular bases of such effects are almost completely unknown. This review summarizes current knowledge about the effects of AM symbiosis on these physiological mechanisms, emphasizing new perspectives and challenges in physiological and molecular studies on salt-stress alleviation by AM symbiosis.Keywords
This publication has 91 references indexed in Scilit:
- Solanaceae XIPs are plasma membrane aquaporins that facilitate the transport of many uncharged substratesThe Plant Journal, 2011
- The Role of Tobacco Aquaporin1 in Improving Water Use Efficiency, Hydraulic Conductivity, and Yield Production Under Salt StressPlant Physiology, 2009
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in alleviation of salt stress: a reviewAnnals of Botany, 2009
- Biodiversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in roots and soils of two salt marshesEnvironmental Microbiology, 2009
- Genome-wide analysis of major intrinsic proteins in the tree plant Populus trichocarpa: Characterization of XIP subfamily of aquaporins from evolutionary perspectiveBMC Plant Biology, 2009
- Plant Aquaporins: Membrane Channels with Multiple Integrated FunctionsAnnual Review of Plant Biology, 2008
- Soil salinity delays germination and limits growth of hyphae from propagules of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungiMycorrhiza, 2006
- Methods and concepts in quantifying resistance to drought, salt and freezing, abiotic stresses that affect plant water statusThe Plant Journal, 2006
- Genes and salt tolerance: bringing them togetherNew Phytologist, 2005
- ASCORBATE AND GLUTATHIONE: Keeping Active Oxygen Under ControlAnnual Review of Plant Physiology and Plant Molecular Biology, 1998