Skip to main content
Log in

Understanding plant responses to saline waterlogging: insights from halophytes and implications for crop tolerance

Planta Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Main conclusion

Saline and wet environments stress most plants, reducing growth and yield. Halophytes adapt with ion regulation, energy maintenance, and antioxidants. Understanding these mechanisms aids in breeding resilient crops for climate change.

Abstract

Waterlogging and salinity are two abiotic stresses that have a major negative impact on crop growth and yield. These conditions cause osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stress, as well as energy deprivation, thus impairing plant growth and development. Although few crop species can tolerate the combination of salinity and waterlogging, halophytes are plant species that exhibit high tolerance to these conditions due to their morphological, anatomical, and metabolic adaptations. In this review, we discuss the main mechanisms employed by plants exposed to saline waterlogging, intending to understand the mechanistic basis of their ion homeostasis. We summarize the knowledge of transporters and channels involved in ion accumulation and exclusion, and how they are modulated to prevent cytosolic toxicity. In addition, we discuss how reactive oxygen species production and cell signaling enhance ion transport and aerenchyma formation, and how plants exposed to saline waterlogging can control oxidative stress. We also address the morphological and anatomical modifications that plants undergo in response to combined stress, including aerenchyma formation, root porosity, and other traits that help to mitigate stress. Furthermore, we discuss the peculiarities of halophyte plants and their features that can be leveraged to improve crop yields in areas prone to saline waterlogging. This review provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of plant adaptation to saline waterlogging thus paving the path for future research on crop breeding and management strategies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Canada)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Data availability

All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback that significantly improved the quality of this manuscript.

Funding

Part of the work described herein was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brazil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001, and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Tamires S. Martins or Cristiane J. Da-Silva.

Additional information

Communicated by Gerhard Leubner.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOC 57 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Martins, T.S., Da-Silva, C.J., Shabala, S. et al. Understanding plant responses to saline waterlogging: insights from halophytes and implications for crop tolerance. Planta 259, 24 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-023-04275-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-023-04275-0

Keywords

Navigation