Salt stress-responsive transcription factors provide insights to enhance barley improvement: a review

Salt stress is limiting barley growth, development, and production. Transcription factors (TFs) play a critical role in plant responses to salt stress by modulating gene expression Salinity stress increases over time due to climate change. It represents a major constraint to barley growth, development, and yield. Enhancing salt tolerance to withstand salt stress is crucial for ensuring global food security. We discussed transcription factors (TFs) that play a key role in responding to salt stress by modulating downstream genes and facilitating alterations in physiological and biochemical pathways. TF families strongly associated with the bZIP, DREB, NAC, bHLH, MYB, ERF, and WRKY are particularly involved in regulating ion homeostasis, osmotic adjustment, and signaling under stressful conditions. These discoveries establish a platform for generating salt-tolerant barley genotypes utilizing modern biotechnological methods. CRISPR/Cas and virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) are broadly used tools to investigate gene function by knocking out or silencing target genes under salt stress. Furthermore, integrating the existing knowledge and foundations of TFs could yield sustainable, salt-resistant barley genotypes for agriculture. Multi-omics and bioinformatics have accelerated the identification of salt-responsive genes and TFs. The review recorded the recent progress in the molecular mechanisms of salinity tolerance in barley and indicates the potential of biotechnology for improving salt tolerance in barley varieties.