Control of Plant Responses to Salt Stress: Significance of Auxin and Brassinosteroids

Abstract

Salinity of soils represents a significant abiotic stress factor that not only reduces productivity of most crops but also poses a threat to the global food security. Understanding the mechanisms underpinning plant stress responses as a whole is essential for enhancing crop productivity in salt-affected soils. To improve crop production on salt-affected lands, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying plant stress responses. Phytohormones are key players in these processes, regulating plant growth, development and germination. Among phytohormones, auxin and brassinosteroids (BRs) have been found to overlap to lessen salt stress in plants. In order to help plants balance growth and salt stress tolerance, auxin, BRs, and their interactions are currently known to play a number of important roles. This chapter gives a summary of these findings and discusses how molecular and genetic approaches can be used to engineer auxin, BRs, and thereby develop more salt-resistant cereal crops in the future.