Involvement of Salicylic Acid in Sulfur Induced Salinity Tolerance: A Role of Glutathione

Abstract

Plants are severely affected by salinity due to its high magnitude of adverse impacts and worldwide distribution. Among various strategies, nutrient management may be an important aspect in alleviating stress under varied environmental conditions. The uptake and assimilation of sulfur plays an inevitable and imperative role in determining plant growth and development and is a fundamental part of several important compounds, such as glutathione, co-enzymes, vitamins, phytohormones and reduced sulfur compounds that decipher growth and vigour of plants under optimal and stressful environments. Assimilatory sulfate reduction may induce salt tolerance by coordinating various physiological processes and molecular mechanisms which are likely to be induced by phytohormones. Among phytohormones salicylic acid (SA) could provide tolerance against salinity stress by enhancing physiological processes and can improve salinity tolerance by its effect on sulfur assimilation pathway as biochemically or molecular mechanisms. The present review critically evaluates the recent studies on the modulation of sulfur assimilation and gives an insight into the role of glutathione to maintain redox state and their cumulative significance in plants’ tolerance to salinity by SA in inducing various physiological responses in plants under salinity stress.