Department of Agro-environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Bologna, Viale Fanin 44, I-40127 Bologna, Italy.
J Exp Bot. 2010 Aug;61(13):3787-98. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erq188. Epub 2010 Jul 1.
Salinity is an abiotic stress that limits both yield and the expansion of agricultural crops to new areas. In the last 20 years our basic understanding of the mechanisms underlying plant tolerance and adaptation to saline environments has greatly improved owing to active development of advanced tools in molecular, genomics, and bioinformatics analyses. However, the full potential of investigative power has not been fully exploited, because the use of halophytes as model systems in plant salt tolerance research is largely neglected. The recent introduction of halophytic Arabidopsis-Relative Model Species (ARMS) has begun to compare and relate several unique genetic resources to the well-developed Arabidopsis model. In a search for candidates to begin to understand, through genetic analyses, the biological bases of salt tolerance, 11 wild relatives of Arabidopsis thaliana were compared: Barbarea verna, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Hirschfeldia incana, Lepidium densiflorum, Malcolmia triloba, Lepidium virginicum, Descurainia pinnata, Sisymbrium officinale, Thellungiella parvula, Thellungiella salsuginea (previously T. halophila), and Thlaspi arvense. Among these species, highly salt-tolerant (L. densiflorum and L. virginicum) and moderately salt-tolerant (M. triloba and H. incana) species were identified. Only T. parvula revealed a true halophytic habitus, comparable to the better studied Thellungiella salsuginea. Major differences in growth, water transport properties, and ion accumulation are observed and discussed to describe the distinctive traits and physiological responses that can now be studied genetically in salt stress research.
盐度是一种非生物胁迫，限制了产量和农业作物向新地区的扩展。在过去的 20 年中，由于分子、基因组学和生物信息学分析的先进工具的积极发展，我们对植物耐受和适应盐环境的机制的基本理解有了很大的提高。然而，由于调查能力的潜力尚未得到充分开发，因为在植物耐盐性研究中，盐生植物作为模式系统的应用在很大程度上被忽视了。最近引入的盐生拟南芥相关模式物种（ARMS）已经开始将几种独特的遗传资源与发达的拟南芥模型进行比较和关联。在寻找候选者的过程中，通过遗传分析开始理解盐耐受性的生物学基础，比较了 11 种拟南芥的野生近缘种：冰岛菀、荠菜、獐毛、密果荠、独行菜、北美独行菜、播娘蒿、荠、小油菜、盐地短柄草（以前称为 T. halophila）和野苦荬菜。在这些物种中，鉴定出高度耐盐（L. densiflorum 和 L. virginicum）和中度耐盐（M. triloba 和 H. incana）的物种。只有 T. parvula 表现出真正的盐生习性，可与研究较好的小油菜相媲美。观察到并讨论了在生长、水分运输特性和离子积累方面的主要差异，以描述在盐胁迫研究中现在可以进行遗传研究的独特特征和生理响应。
