Importance of rhizospheric microbial communities in plant nutrient availability and health suggests that any impact of the soil microbial community diversity or structure would directly affect the crop productivity in those soils. The incident of salt stress in soil has exhibited a reduction in the rhizosphere respiration, enzyme activity, soil microbial community size, and their growth rate, which ultimately affects the biogeochemical cycle negatively (Tripathi et al. 2006; Zhang et al. 2019). The increasing soil salinity has negatively impacted the bacterial community of Planctomyces and Archangium, associated with the soil organic matter input and stabilization (Zhang et al. 2019). The fungal mycorrhizal community helps plant better absorption of the mineral from the soil, and the activity of these mycorrhiza communities affects the soil nutrient availability (Babu and Reddy 2011). Under salt‐stress conditions, the arbuscular mycorrhizae Glomus was suggested to enhance the phosphorus and potassium uptakes by the plants (Porcel et al. 2012), but the increasing salt stress reduces the Glomus availability in the soil (Zhang et al. 2019). The fungus Hydropisphaera, which is involved in degrading the lignin in the salt marsh, brings a negative impact on the plants’ growth and survival during the salt‐stress conditions. In salt stress, the Hydropisphaera got dominated by the rhizosphere. Degradation of the lignin by Hydropisphaera reduces the soil organic matter and soil fertility (Zhang et al. 2019) posing a threat to the survival of the plants under the salt‐stress conditions. The salt stress to the horticultural crop tomato showed the increased incidence of growth of the root‐rot disease‐causing fungal pathogen Phytophthora parasitica (SNAPP et al. 1991), showing the importance of understanding the effect of salt stress on the nontargeted organism in parallel. There are several beneficial halotolerant plant growth‐promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) that assist plants in their survival under the salt‐stress conditions. The PGPRs and their functional role are described in detail by Kumari et al. (2019), and studying these PGPRs will help us improve the salt‐stress tolerance in plants up to some extent.
2.4 Effect of Salt Stress on Physiology of Crop Plants
Accumulation of salt ions in the plant rhizosphere causes dual stress to the plants, the osmotic imbalance between the soil and root cells, and cellular ionic imbalance due to passive or active intake of salt ions. The salinity‐induced osmotic stress suppresses the water uptake by the plants immediately, which then triggers various physiological and metabolic adjustments in the plants. Osmotic stress inhibits the expansion of the root and shoot cells within minutes due to reduced turgor pressure (Fricke et al. 2004; Munns et al. 2000) and the stress signal transduced rapidly at a speed of the sound through different signaling cascades from the root to the shoot tissue for the closure of stomata to minimize water loss, which seizes shoot metabolism (Christmann et al. 2013; Shabala et al. 2016). The mechanosensitive ion channels of the leaf guard cells sense the drop in xylem pressure and participate in stomatal closure, reducing the CO2 exchange and photosynthetic assimilation (Shabala et al. 2016). For osmotic adjustment, plants start the intake of the salt ions from the soil, which then enters different root and shoot cells creating the ionic stress to plants (Shabala and Lew 2002).
The NaCl dominates the saline soil, and, therefore, the Na+ is the most critical ion, which is assumed to pose toxic effects on the plant cell physiology and metabolism. For their survival and optimal physiological activity, the ionic homeostasis is essential in the plants, and different ion channels and transporters in root or shoot tissues are involved in this process. The Na+ enters into the root cells through the glutamate receptor‐like (GLRs) channels, cyclic nucleotide‐gated (CNGCs) nonselective cation channels, high‐affinity K+ transporters (HKT2, HAK5), Shaker‐type K+ channels (AKT1), the low‐affinity cation transporter (LCT1), and aquaporins (PIP2;1) (Zhao et al. 2020). The entry of salt ions to the root cells and the osmotic stress spikes the Ca2+ in the root cells activating the salt overly sensitive (SOS) signaling pathway for the extrusion of the excess Na+ out of the cell (Hong et al. 2019; Shi et al. 2002). The function of active Na+ extrusion from root cells to the soil is performed by the plasma membrane Na+/H+ antiporter named salt overly sensitive 1 (SOS1) antiporter (Shi et al. 2002).
However, during salt stress, a higher concentration of salt ions in soil and continuous intrusion of salt ions to the root cells, the extrusion of Na+ by SOS1 is not sufficient to maintain the cellular homeostasis of the Na+. Thus, the plants sequester the excess Na+ into the vacuole by the vacuolar Na+/H+ antiporter (NHX1), loaded to the xylem vessel to distribute it all over the plants by nonselective cation channel (NCCS), SOS1, high‐affinity K+ family transporter 2 (HKT2) or cation‐chloride cotransporter (CCC), or retrieved to the phloem from leaf cells by HKT1 (Zhao et al. 2020). The general limit of external salt concentration for glycophytes is 0.5% of seawater (≈86 mM NaCl) above which the stress‐coping mechanism fails, and severe yield loss in plants are reported (Bose et al. 2017). We discuss the effect of the salt stress on different compartments of the plant cell and their physiology or metabolic activities in the following sections.
2.4.1 Effect of Salt Stress on Chlorophyll Biosynthesis, Chloroplast Functioning, and Photophosphorylation
In addition to photosynthesis, the chloroplast is the hub of several other metabolic activities: the biosynthesis of chlorophyll, carotenoid, ABA, vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids and lipids (Zhao et al. 2020). Therefore, any environmental stress affects the metabolic pathways that operate in the chloroplast. Minutes after the salt stress, the stomata are closed, suppressing the exchange of the CO2 resulting in photosynthesis inhibition. In the light reaction of photosynthesis, the electron generated from the photo‐oxidation of water passes through the electron transport chain (ETC) on the thylakoid membrane to the electron acceptor proteins and molecules in the stroma. The transfer of electrons through the ETC generates a proton gradient across the thylakoid membrane, creating a proton motive force (PMF). This PMF drives the function of the chloroplast ATP synthase for the synthesis of ATP from the ADP, a process defined as the photophosphorylation (Sudhir and Murthy 2004). The plants use the ATP produced by the photophosphorylation in their metabolic pathways that operates in the chloroplast.
2.4.1.1 Chlorophyll Biosynthesis in Salt Stress
The chlorophyll biosynthesis in plants occurs in the plastid involving more than 17 enzymes encoded by the nucleus (Pattanayak and Tripathy 2002). Various environmental stresses, including salt stress, downregulate the chlorophyll biosynthesis. Exposure of young and etiolated rice seedlings with salt stress showed that the decrease in the chlorophyll biosynthesis was the result of the reduced transcript expression and protein abundance of biosynthetic enzymes 5‐aminolevulinic acid (ALA) dehydratase, porphobilinogen deaminase, coproporphyrinogen III oxidase, protoporphyrinogen IX oxidase, Mg‐protoporphyrin IX chelatase, and protochlorophyllideoxidoreductase (Turan and Tripathy 2015). Although ALA synthesis decreased, the gene/protein expression of glutamyl‐tRNA reductase increased, suggesting that it may play a role in acclimation to salt stress. In mature Sunflower plants, the salt‐stress‐induced downregulation of chlorophyll biosynthesis in leaves showed a correlation with the reduced level of glutamate and 5‐ALA accumulation (Santos 2004). Salinity downregulates the expression of chlorophyllide‐a‐oxygenase (CAO), which is involved in Chl b synthesis. The reduced Chl b synthesis contributes to an increased Chl a/b ratio observed in salt stress (Pattanayak and Tripathy 2002). The adaptation of plants to downregulate the chlorophyll biosynthesis is essential for protecting the chloroplast from the photo‐oxidative damage by the ROS generated by light and triplet chlorophylls in the absence of photosynthesis (Turan and Tripathy 2015). Thus, the downregulation of chlorophyll biosynthesis might be part of the stress avoidance and protection mechanism in plants.
2.4.1.2 Salt Stress Affects Chloroplast Function
Salt stress affects chloroplast more severely than another organelle, as the ROS increases rapidly due to chlorophyll triplet and oxygen molecules produced
