Exploring the physiological, biochemical, and molecular aspects of plants’ ability to withstand salinity

The global productivity of agriculture is seriously threatened by the rising salinity of the soil. Salinity is one of the main abiotic factors that prevent plants from growing by reducing nutrient intake, oxidative damage, ionic imbalance, and osmotic stress. Plants have evolved a number of morphological and molecular adaptation mechanisms in order to tolerate stress. The most sustainable method of mitigating the salt stress among several strategies is to cultivate agricultural plants that are tolerant to salinity and to make use of the genetic variability seen in crops across diverse gene pools. The current review attempts to provide insight into plant defense systems, physiological, biochemical, and molecular responses to salt stress, as well as fundamental genetics of salinity tolerance using bi-parental QTL mapping and the application of genomic selection in the breeding of salt-tolerant lines.