Microbe-Mediated Amelioration Of Salinity Stress In Plants

Laccy Phurailatpam, Deepika Goyal, Sushma Mishra*

Plant Biotechnology Lab, Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Dayalbagh Educational Institute
(Deemed-to-be-University), Dayalbagh, Agra-282005, (INDIA)

PAGE NO: 80-96

ABSTRACT – DOI : https://dx.doi.org/10.47204/EBR.1.1.2021.80-96

Salinity, one of the major abiotic stresses faced by crop plants, is responsible for causing >20% loss in crop productivity worldwide. The elevated salt ion concentration (mainly Na+ and Cl-) in soil or water creates osmotic stress, oxidative stress and ion toxicity in plant cells. Salinity stress affects plant growth, development and survival by hampering seed germination, photosynthesis, water and nutrient uptake, cell division etc. In nature, plants are associated with a plethora of beneficial microbes like mycorrhizae, nitrogen fixers, rhizobacteria and endophytes. A number of studies have highlighted the role of plant-associated microbes in enhancing plant growth and survival, especially under adverse environmental conditions like drought, salinity, nutrient unavailability etc. The present study provides an overview of the role of plant-associated microbes in imparting salinity tolerance to the plants. Literature reports have demonstrated that microbes alleviate the effects of salt stress through a series of mechanisms like modulation of phytohormones (auxins, cytokinins, abscisic acid, ethylene etc.), ion exchange, expression of antioxidant enzymes and accumulation of compatible solutes.