Plants’ Challenges in a Salinized World: The Case of Capsicum

Plants are sessile and are exposed to many environmental factors and are therefore under stress. In soils used for agriculture, salinity is a major abiotic factor that affects the growth, yield and quality of crops worldwide, mainly by the accumulation of Na+ in plant tissues and resulting loss of water. Crop peppers of the genus Capsicum have a high sensitivity to stress induced by high concentrations of salts. Throughout their entire ontogeny, pepper plants are susceptible to salt stress, but damage to the seedling is more serious and results in growth retardation and even death of the seedling. Because of the economic importance of peppers, improved tolerance to salinity stress should be the primary target of research for different pepper species. For this reason, we examined the current state of research with regard to the effect of salt stress on plants of the genus Capsicum.