salinity-tolerance
Salinity tolerance refers to the capacity of plants to survive and grow in soils or water with elevated salt concentrations that would otherwise inhibit normal development. High soil salinity is a major abiotic stress affecting agricultural productivity worldwide, disrupting water uptake, ion homeostasis, and key metabolic processes in plants. Understanding the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying salinity tolerance is critical for developing crops that can thrive in salt-affected soils, which represent a growing challenge as climate change and irrigation practices expand salinization.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-13
Coating barley seeds with zinc oxide nanoparticles before planting dramatically boosts the crop's ability to survive salty soils by switching on protective genes and enzymes that manage salt damage at the cellular level.
Nano-primed seeds outperformed both untreated and water-soaked seeds, with one tolerant genotype (HOR11370) showing a 79-fold increase in a key protective gene (CAT1) under salt stress.
A second tolerant genotype (BCC1398) showed a 208-fold increase in the NHX3 gene, which helps pack excess salt safely into cellular compartments away from vital plant machinery.
Nano-priming also activated salt-defense genes in a previously sensitive barley variety (BCC532), suggesting the treatment can partially overcome genetic limitations to salt tolerance.
