The growing human population requires sustainable vegetable production with increased yields and minimal additional resources. Presently the vegetable production is severely affected by abiotic stresses and salinity stress is one of the greatest threats to production but unlike common food crops little effort has been made in vegetable crops to study mechanism of salinity tolerance in them. The increasing prevalence of soil salinity is one of the most dangerous obstacles in improving crop productivity and quality. Crop productivity is severely affected by salinity stress. This occurs directly due to the impact of salinity on photosynthesis, respiration, nutrient assimilation, hormonal imbalance, etc. The indirect adverse effect of salinity is enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species in stressed plant which subsequently cause damage to macromolecules such as lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids, and thus, constrain crop productivity. Therefore, to engineer more salt-tolerant plants, it is important to find out the key components of the plant salt-tolerance network. These components include various genes (SOS signaling- network), proteins and metabolites (osmolytes, phytohormones, lipids, etc.) which may be used to engineer plants for their increased salt tolerance. This multidisciplinary approach will be highly helpful in increasing plant as well as crop productivity to meet out increasing demand of food for ever increasing population.
salnity, stress, vegetables and yield
