As one of the world's major food crops, wheat production is severely threatened by soil salinization, as salt stress affects approximately 10% to 20% of the global wheat cultivation area. Salt stress inhibits wheat growth via a triple mechanism including osmotic imbalance, ion toxicity, and oxidative damage. Wheat, being a salt−sensitive crop, possesses a narrow genetic base for salt tolerance, limiting its productivity improvement in salinized lands. In recent years, multi−level studies have elucidated the molecular, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms underlying salt tolerance in wheat. However, coordinated optimization of salt tolerance with agronomic traits such as yield, as well as the complexity of salt stress responses, remain major challenges. This review summarizes advances in understanding the physiological and biochemical mechanisms, molecular regulatory networks, genetic basis of salt tolerance, discovery and utilization of novel salt−tolerant genes, and breeding strategies for developing salt−tolerant wheat varieties. It also analyzes existing challenges in the field, including the paradigm and limitations of conventional breeding, identification and cloning of key salt−tolerant genes, applications of genetic engineering and gene editing technologies, and the systematic integration of multidisciplinary technologies. Due to the mechanism complexities of plant resonese to salinity stress, and the exploring and functional characterization difficulties of salt tolerance related genes in wheat, it is necessary to identify salt tolerance genes from wheat by integrating multiomics techniques, and timely employ the important salt resistance genes excavated in other plant species for wheat improvement. This paper aims to provide some valuable information for genetic improvement of wheat on salt tolerance.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |