Salinity is an ever-present threat to crop yields, especially in countries where …

• Abstract
• Why should we want to improve crop salt tolerance?
• Historical perspective
• The complexity of salt tolerance
• Approaches to enhancing tolerance
• Conclusions
• Supplementary data
• References
• Tables

Biology Articles » Agriculture » Plant Production » Improving crop salt tolerance » Conclusions

Conclusions

- Improving crop salt tolerance

It is conceivable that approaches that identify specific genesthat are up- or down-regulated either through the analysis ofRNA (Kawasaki et al., 2001) or proteins (Salekdeh et al., 2002)might provide a specific focus for transformation, althoughchoosing key genes for tolerance is currently far from happening.Transgenic technology will undoubtedly continue to aid the searchfor the cellular mechanisms that underlie tolerance, but thecomplexity of the trait is likely to mean that the road to engineeringsuch tolerance into sensitive species will be long. In the meantime,it would be expedient to continue to invest in other avenuessuch as the manipulation of ion excretion from leaves throughsalt glands and the domestication of halophytes. Experiencesuggests authors should avoid hyperbole in their titles andsummaries, as this does little service to the long-term aimof improving the salt tolerance of crops in the field.