Recent Advances in Research on Salt Tolerance of Tomato Plants

Tomato is a major food crop worldwide.Increasingsoil salinity has become one of the common abiotic stresses affecting the vegetative growth and fruit yield of tomato plants.This article articulates the mechanisms of salt tolerance of tomato as viewed from the plant,cellular,and molecular levels.Furthermore,effective alleviation of the salt stress by chemical,genetic engineering,and microbial manipulations for the tomato plants is discussed.The conventional approaches,such as theintegrated application of organic and inorganic fertilizers,resistance exercise as well as grafting and microbial inoculation,have played a vital role in the improvement of the conditions in the past.Recently,the genetically modified tomato crops viathe agrobacterium-mediated transformation or pollen tube also produced high levels of tolerance to salt for the plants.By integrating and optimizing the conventional and modern technologies,the effort in combating,the salinity increase could be further advanced.