Molecular biology of salt tolerance in the context of whole-plant physiology

nical ability for plant transformation increases daily, the practicality of using transgenic plants in complex The halobacteria are the only organisms that are tolerbreeding programmes seems rarely to be given enough ant of salinity at the molecular level. All other bacteria, thought. If intervention at the molecular level is to lead all fungi, all plants, and all animals avoid the need for to salt-tolerant crop plants then it will be essential to salt tolerance for most of their macromolecules by view this in the contexts of whole plants and of plant maintaining defined and conserved conditions in the breeding. Recent indications that a relatively small cytoplasm. These conditions favour potassium over number of quantitative trait loci (QTL) may govern comsodium, the limitation of total inorganic ion activity, plex physiological characters offer the most hope for and the supplementation of this where necessary with the future. organic solutes which are metabolically neutral osmolytes that may also be osmoprotectant. The salt toler