Professional Documents
Culture Documents
SHS Department
S. Y. 2019 – 2020
GENERAL BIOLOGY II
Jayakumar Bose, Rana Munns, Sergey Shabala, Matthew Gilliham, Barry Pogson and Stephen D
SYNOPSIS
The available literature indicates that halophytes can overcome stomatal limitation by
switching to CO2 concentrating mechanisms and increasing the number of chloroplasts per cell
under saline conditions. Furthermore, salt entry into the chloroplast stroma may be critical for
grana formation and photosystem II activity in halophytes but not in glycophytes. It proposes the
molecular identities of candidate transporters that move sodium, chloride and potassium across
chloroplast membranes and discuss how their operation may regulate photochemistry and
Salinity is a growing problem for food production. Progress has been made in
understanding how plants tolerate salinity, mostly focused on strategies for tolerance at the
plasma membrane and cytosol. Bose et al. review studies that focus on how the chloroplast is
affected by salinity. The authors review the roles of Na +, Cl− and K+ in chloroplast function, and
compare salinity responses of chloroplasts from halophytes (salt-tolerant plants) and glycophytes
(non-tolerant plants). Although much is still unknown, there is compelling evidence to suggest
that chloroplasts of halophytes are uniquely suited for a high-salt environment; “Halophyte
chloroplasts may have intrinsically higher levels of oxidative protection, more stable
Clearly, these findings will be critical for efforts to engineer salt tolerance into crop plants.
Research into the effects of salinity on plant reproductive biology has gained momentum
in recent years. However, it remains unclear whether the reproductive biology of halophytes
differs from that of non-halophytes, and whether their reproductive processes benefit, like their
Salt has beneficial effects on halophyte reproductive growth that include late flowering,
increased flower numbers and pollen vitality, and high seed yield. This improved performance is
due to optimal nutrition during vegetative growth, alterations in plant hormonal status, and
regulation of flowering genes. In addition, the seeds of halophytes harvested under saline
conditions show higher salt tolerance than those obtained under non-saline condition, largely due
to increased osmolyte accumulation, more optimal hormonal composition (e.g., high gibberellic
acid and low abcisic acid content) and, in some species, seed dimorphism. In the near future,
identifying key genes involved in halophyte reproductive physiology and using them to
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