Salinity stress tolerance and omics approaches: revisiting the progress and achievements in major cereal crops

Salinity stress adversely affects plant growth and causes considerable losses in cereal crops. Salinity stress tolerance is a complex phenomenon, imparted by the interaction of compounds involved in various biochemical and physiological processes. Conventional breeding for salt stress tolerance has had limited success. However, the availability of molecular marker-based high-density linkage maps in the last two decades boosted genomics-based quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and QTL-seq approaches for fine mapping important major QTL for salinity stress tolerance in rice, wheat, and maize. For example, in rice, ‘Saltol’ QTL was successfully introgressed for tolerance to salt stress, particularly at the seedling stage. Transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics also offer opportunities to decipher and understand the molecular basis of stress tolerance. The use of proteomics and metabolomics-based metabolite markers can serve as an efficient selection tool as a substitute for phenotype-based selection. This review covers the molecular mechanisms for salinity stress tolerance, recent progress in mapping and introgressing major gene/QTL (genomics), transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in major cereals, viz., rice, wheat and maize.