Abiotic stress in quinoa: A comprehensive review on the impact of salinity and mitigation strategies

Abstract

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa wild) is a gluten-free pseudocereal with an exceptionally nutritious, balanced profile of lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, minerals, vitamins, and beneficial secondary metabolites. These nutritional qualities, combined with Its capacity to grow successfully under drought, cold, salinity, and heavy metal stress, have earned special attention worldwide and positioned quinoa as a promising future crop for addressing global food security challenges amid climate change. This review highlights the physiological, morphological, and metabolic characteristics of quinoa that enable quinoa to tolerate a variety of abiotic stresses, with a particular emphasis on salinity. Quinoa exhibits various mechanisms under salt stress, including efficient Na⁺ sequestration in leaf vacuoles, controlled xylem Na⁺ loading, accumulation of organic and inorganic osmolytes, enhanced ROS resistance, improved K⁺ retention, and precise stomatal regulation. Quinoa’s tolerance to salinity can be significantly enhanced through seed priming, foliar applications of plant growth regulators, organic amendments, and microbial inoculants.