A Perspective on Developing a Plant 'Holobiont' for Future Saline Agriculture

Area of Science:

• Agricultural Science
• Plant Biology
• Microbiology

Background:

• Soil salinity is a major global constraint on crop production.
• Sustainable solutions for saline agriculture are urgently needed.
• Symbiotic microorganisms offer a promising bio-technological approach to mitigate salinity stress.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review advances in symbiont-induced salinity tolerance in plants.
• To describe signaling pathways regulating legume symbiosis with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.
• To explore innovative applications of symbiotic microorganisms for enhanced crop salt tolerance.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive literature review of symbiont-plant interactions under salinity.
• Analysis of signaling processes in legume symbiosis.
• Discussion of multi-omics technologies for gene discovery and pathway mapping.
• Exploration of genome editing for developing novel plant holobionts.

Main Results:

• Symbiotic associations with rhizobia and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi confer significant salinity tolerance.
• Key signaling pathways governing symbiosis establishment have been elucidated.
• Multi-omics approaches have identified numerous genes and pathways involved in symbiosis.
• Genome editing presents a novel strategy for engineering enhanced salt tolerance.

Conclusions:

• Symbiotic microorganisms are effective in improving plant salt tolerance.
• Understanding symbiosis signaling is crucial for technological advancement.
• Developing non-legume holobionts via genome editing offers a new frontier for saline agriculture.
• This approach can enhance crop sustainability and yields in saline environments.