Chemical priming enhances plant tolerance to salt stress

Faisal Zulfiqar; Muhammad Nafees; Jianjun Chen; Anastasios Darras; Antonio Ferrante; John T Hancock; Muhammad Ashraf; Abbu Zaid; Nadeem Latif; Francisco J Corpas; Muhammad Ahsan Altaf; Kadambot H M Siddique

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.946922

Chemical priming enhances plant tolerance to salt stress

Front Plant Sci. 2022 Sep 7:13:946922. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.946922. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Horticultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan.
² Mid-Florida Research and Education Center, Environmental Horticulture Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Apopka, FL, United States.
³ Department of Agriculture, University of the Peloponnese, Kalamata, Greece.
⁴ Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Science, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milano, Italy.
⁵ Department of Applied Sciences, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom.
⁶ Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁷ Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Section, Department of Botany, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India.
⁸ Antioxidant, Free Radical and Nitric Oxide in Biotechnology, Food and Agriculture Group, Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of Plants, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Granada, Spain.
⁹ School of Horticulture, Hainan University, Haikou, China.
¹⁰ The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, Australia.

Abstract

Salt stress severely limits the productivity of crop plants worldwide and its detrimental effects are aggravated by climate change. Due to a significant world population growth, agriculture has expanded to marginal and salinized regions, which usually render low crop yield. In this context, finding methods and strategies to improve plant tolerance against salt stress is of utmost importance to fulfill food security challenges under the scenario of the ever-increasing human population. Plant priming, at different stages of plant development, such as seed or seedling, has gained significant attention for its marked implication in crop salt-stress management. It is a promising field relying on the applications of specific chemical agents which could effectively improve plant salt-stress tolerance. Currently, a variety of chemicals, both inorganic and organic, which can efficiently promote plant growth and crop yield are available in the market. This review summarizes our current knowledge of the promising roles of diverse molecules/compounds, such as hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), molecular hydrogen, nitric oxide (NO), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), melatonin, chitosan, silicon, ascorbic acid (AsA), tocopherols, and trehalose (Tre) as potential primers that enhance the salinity tolerance of crop plants.

Keywords: antioxidants; bioregulator; chitosan; hydrogen peroxide; hydrogen sulfide; molecular hydrogen; nitric oxide; thiamine.

Publication types

Review