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Evaluating the resistance mechanism of Atriplex leucoclada (Orache) to salt and water stress; a potential crop for biosaline agriculture

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-21, 08:03 authored by Alam, H, Zamin, M, Adnan, M, Ahmad, N, Nawaz, T, Saud, S, Basir, A, Ke LiuKe Liu, Matthew HarrisonMatthew Harrison, Hassan, S, Alharby, HF, Alzahrani, YM, Alghamdi, SA, Majrashi, A, Alharbi, BM, Alabdallah, NM, Fahad, S
The development of food and forage crops that flourish under saline conditions may be a prospective avenue for mitigating the impacts of climate change, both allowing biomass production under conditions of water-deficit and potentially expanding land-use to hitherto non-arable zones. Here, we examine responses of the native halophytic shrub Atriplex leucoclada to salt and drought stress using a factorial design, with four levels of salinity and four drought intensities under the arid conditions. A. leucoclada plants exhibited morphological and physiological adaptation to salt and water stress which had little effect on survival or growth. Under low salinity stress, water stress decreased the root length of A. leucoclada; in contrast, under highly saline conditions root length increased. Plant tissue total nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content decreased with increasing water stress under low salinity. As salt stress increased, detrimental effects of water deficit diminished. We found that both salt and water stress had increased Na+ and Cl– uptake, with both stresses having an additive and beneficial role in increasing ABA and proline content. We conclude that A. leucoclada accumulates high salt concentrations in its cellular vacuoles as a salinity resistance mechanism; this salt accumulation then becomes conducive to mitigation of water stress. Application of these mechanisms to other crops may improve tolerance and producitivity under salt and water stress, potentially improving food security.

Funding

Grains Research & Development Corporation

History

Publication title

Frontiers in Plant Science

Volume

13

Article number

948736

Number

948736

Pagination

1-12

ISSN

1664-462X

Department/School

Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA)

Publisher

Frontiers Research Foundation

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

© 2022 Alam, Zamin, Adnan, Ahmad, Nawaz, Saud, Basir, Liu, Harrison, Hassan, Alharby, Alzahrani, Alghamdi, Majrashi, Alharbi, Alabdallah and Fahad. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Rehabilitation or conservation of fresh, ground and surface water environments; Rehabilitation or conservation of terrestrial environments; Climate adaptive plants