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Approaches to Improving Salt Tolerance in Maize

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Salt Stress in Plants

Abstract

Maize is a salt-sensitive crop and is affected even by low concentrations of salt, leading to loss in crop production Changing climate conditions (environmental stress) have forced plant biologists to explore alternate strategies to make maize plants salt tolerant. Breeding for salt resistance is difficult because it is a multigenic trait. When conventional breeding fails to meet the challenges imposed by these stresses, plant scientists shifted to marker-assisted selection and transgenic approaches. Genetic transformation have been proven to be successful. It has shown that over-expression of tonoplast Na+/H+ antiporters in plants resulted in improved salt resistance in plants. Currently, a vast number of gene regulatory elements, including si- and mi-RNA have been identified either leading to salt tolerance or resulting from salinity stress. Engaging the right elements on a case-by-case basis may provide answers to this long-standing problem. As with most complex systems, a combination of conventional breeding, exploiting physiological knowledge, transgenic approaches and field based testing is perhaps the way forward to address salinity problem in maize.

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  1. Dow AgroSciences LLC, 9330 Zionsville Road, Indianapolis, IN, 46268, USA

    Sreekala Chellamma & Bhinu V-S. Pillai

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  1. Sreekala Chellamma
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  2. Bhinu V-S. Pillai
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Correspondence to Bhinu V-S. Pillai .

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  1. Department of Botany A.S. College, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India

    Parvaiz Ahmad

  2. Department of Botany Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt

    M. M. Azooz

  3. Department of Biological Sciences Faculty of Science, King Faisal University, Al Hassa, Saudi Arabia

    M. M. Azooz

  4. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India

    M. N. V. Prasad

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Chellamma, S., Pillai, B.VS. (2013). Approaches to Improving Salt Tolerance in Maize. In: Ahmad, P., Azooz, M.M., Prasad, M.N.V. (eds) Salt Stress in Plants. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6108-1_11

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