Perspectives of phytohormones application to enhance salinity tolerance in plants

Abstract

Plants undergo a wide range of morphological, cellular, anatomical, and physiological changes in response to salinity stress. However, plants produce some signaling molecules, usually known as phytohormones, to combat stress conditions. Salinity tolerance is a complex mechanism, whereas phytohormones have a central role in it. Phytohormone-mediated plant responses improve nutrient uptake, the source-sink relationship, and plant growth and development. Phytohormones triggers the specific gene expressions which are responsible for the modification of various plant mechanisms under salinity stress. This review summarized the most recent research findings about plant responses to salinity stress at physiological and molecular levels and discussed the probable function of several (abscisic acid, indole acetic acid, cytokinins, gibberellic acid, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, ethylene, and triazoles) phytohormones and their interaction in modulating salinity stress. Further, the understanding of specific genes involved in phytohormonal regulation toward salinity tolerance is a key to developing breeding and transgenic approaches for meeting food demand under sustainable crop production.