Hanin M. auteur aut IRD Ebel C. auteur aut IRD Ngom M. auteur aut IRD Laplaze Laurent auteur aut IRD Masmoudi K. auteur aut IRD text journalArticle eng text/pdf reformatted digital access Soil salinization is a major threat to agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions, where water scarcity and inadequate drainage of irrigated lands severely reduce crop yield. Salt accumulation inhibits plant growth and reduces the ability to uptake water and nutrients, leading to osmotic or water-deficit stress. Salt is also causing injury of the young photosynthetic leaves and acceleration of their senescence, as the Na+ cation is toxic when accumulating in cell cytosol resulting in ionic imbalance and toxicity of transpiring leaves. To cope with salt stress, plants have evolved mainly two types of tolerance mechanisms based on either limiting the entry of salt by the roots, or controlling its concentration and distribution. Understanding the overall control of Na+ accumulation and functional studies of genes involved in transport processes, will provide a new opportunity to improve the salinity tolerance of plants relevant to food security in arid regions. A better understanding of these tolerance mechanisms can be used to breed crops with improved yield performance under salinity stress. Moreover, associations of cultures with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could serve as an alternative and sustainable strategy to increase crop yields in salt-affected fields. specialized salinity tolerance mechanisms transport of sodium detoxification pathways beneficial soil microorganisms engineering of plant salinity tolerance 076 084 7 1787 [17 ] 2016 1664-462X https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010068741 10.3389/fpls.2016.01787 1664-462X [F B010068741] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010068741 https://horizon.documentation.ird.fr/exl-doc/pleins_textes/divers16-12/010068741.pdf IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2017-01-09 2021-04-14 fdi:010068741 fre