Editorial: Plant-microbe interactions and their role in salinity tolerance

Abstract

Soil salinization is a major soil degradation process threatening the ecosystem and is recognized as one of the most important global problems for crop production, food security, and sustainable agriculture. Halophytes and halo-tolerant plants are adapted to natural saline environments, through physiological mechanisms such as regulation of cellular ion homeostasis and osmotic pressure, the detoxification of reactive oxygen species, and alterations in membrane composition and secondary metabolites production (Lombardi et al.2022). To cope with salinity stress, much research has focused on producing stress-tolerant plant lines through genetic engineering and plant breeding. However, such methods have proven costly and time-consuming (Gupta et a. 2022).One promising approach may be the introduction of salt-tolerant microbes to enhance plant growth in areas exposed to salinity stress. Both plant-associated fungi and bacteria hold great potential for improving plant nutrition, yield biomass, and stress tolerance. However, the contribution of symbiotic microbes to salt adaptation still needs to be understood entirely (Khalmuratova et al. 2019). Thus, combined data from genomic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic studies would be essential to identify key pathways and processes controlled by microbial factors, resulting in plant tolerance to salinity. Studying the structure and function of microbial communities in saline soil could help elucidate their key role in the biological mechanisms of regulating nutrient cycles in saline soil (Zhang et al. 2019). It is thought that the co-evolution of halophytes and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) has enabled these plants to survive in saline habitats (da Silva Folli-Pereira et al., 2013; Pan et al., 2020). Therefore, identifying microorganisms that thrive under different adverse environmental conditions can result in the discovery of beneficial symbiosis (Ma et al. 2020).This research theme aimed to attract the attention of the scientific community to issues related to the influence of microorganisms on the physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms responsible for sensing, signaling, and responses to salt stress and drought stress in halophytes or halotolerant plants. Seven scientific papers have been published assessing the ability of plants to survive under saline conditions with symbiotic microorganisms.

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