ABSTRACT
In recent years, extensive studies have been conducted to understand the effects and mechanism of tolerance of plants to environmental stress. The external abiotic and biotic factors that limit the rate of photosynthesis and reduce the ability of plants to convert energy to biomass, thereby reducing the growth development and ultimate yield, are defined as stress (Parihar et al., 2015). Plants are continuously exposed to a broad range of environmental stress factors, such as salinity (salt stress), drought, UV radiation, light, flooding, and temperature, which alter their physiological and biochemical processes (Misra et al., 2001a, 2001b, 2001c, 2002, 2012a, 2012b, 2014; Chaitanya et al., 2014; Suzuki et al., 2014; Misra and Misra, 2018a, 2018b). Decreased yields, as a result of the action of abiotic stress factors, the increasing human population, and the reduction in agricultural land, are leading to alarming predictions of depletion of food resources, and people are looking for new strategies that can guarantee the supply of food (Misra et al., 2002; Rasool et al., 2013; Shahbaz and Ashraf, 2013; Shrivastava and Kumar, 2015). The beginning of the twenty-first century is marked by global scarcity of water resources, environmental pollution, and increased salinization of soil and water. High salinity levels can lead to changes in soil properties, which negatively affect the environment, soil fertility, and agricultural production and result in serious harm to human health (Misra et al., 1995, 2001d; Brevik et al., 2015; Daliakopoulos et al., 2016; Hachicha et al., 2018). Furthermore, soil salinization leads to the alteration or even disruption of the earth’s natural biological, biochemical, hydrological, and erosional cycles (Daliakopoulos et al., 2016).
