Mechanism of Salt Tolerance in Fruit Crops: A Review

Salinity in soil and water is a critical factor that is causing hindrance in crop production under salt affected areas. Plant metabolic activities are apparently restricted due to accumulation of salt. The event of salt stress happens to be the reason of severe alteration in the sequence of plant growth and development which ultimately reduces the survivability of plants. The physiological and biochemical mechanisms of tolerance to various osmotic and ionic components of salinity stress are evaluated at the cellular, organ and whole plant level. The course of adaptation towards salinity stress could be of various types such as avoidance, exclusion, extrusion, ion compartmentalization etc. Appropriate understanding of mechanism involved in salt tolerance at different levels in plant tissues provide a new opportunity to integrate physiological and biochemical knowledge to improve the salinity tolerance of fruit crops, especially from the nutritional aspect. Such information not only helpful in escalating the productivity in salt affected areas, but also facilitate in bringing relatively more salt affected areas under cultivation.