Identify salt-tolerant tomato genotypes

The gap

Evidence profile

Sourced from the stated research gap and stated challenges and future work and abstract and future-work section of the source papers, classified as general, drawn from work published between 2024 and 2026, spanning 6 journals. Those papers have been cited 1,270 times in total.

Supporting evidence — 8 representative gaps

• Salt Tolerance in Agriculture: Unveiling the Role of Halotolerant Bacteria and Metagenomics in Crop Improvement (2026) · Journal of Plant Growth Regulation · doi

  Conventional approaches to enhance plant resilience often face limitations. There is a need to develop sustainable and effective approaches to alleviate the impact of salinity on agricultural productivity.

  generalstated research gap
  Keywords: conventional approaches enhance plant resilience often face limitations
• Exogenous melatonin induces salt and drought stress tolerance in rice by promoting plant growth and defense system (2024) · Scientific Reports · cited 124× · doi

  Salt and drought stress are major threats to crop yield stability. Climate change exacerbates these stress conditions. There is a need for effective strategies to improve crop yield stability under salt and drought stress conditions.

  generalstated challenges
  Keywords: salt drought stress major threats crop yield stability
• Soil salinization in agriculture: Mitigation and adaptation strategies combining nature-based solutions and bioengineering (2024) · iScience · cited 382× · doi

  Soil salinization in agriculture: Mitigation and adaptation strategies combining nature-based solutions and bioengineering Paolo Tarolli,1,* Jian Luo,2 Edward Park,3 Gianni Barcaccia,4 and Roberta Masin4 SUMMARY Soil salinization is among the most critical threats to agriculture and food security. Excess of salts adversely affects soil structure and fertility, plant growth, crop yield, and microorganisms. It is caused by natural processes, such as dry climates and low precipitations, high evaporation rate, poor waterlogging, and human factors, such as inappropriate irrigation practices, poor drainage systems, and excessive use of fertilizers. The growing extremization of climate with prolonged drought conditions is worsening the phenomenon. Nature-based solutions (NBS), combined with precision or conservation agriculture, represent a sustainable response, and offer benefits through revitalizing ecosystem services. This perspective explores NBS that can be adopted, along with their challenges and implementation limitations. We also argue that NBS could not be enough to combat hunger in the world’s most vulnerable regions and fully achieve the Sustainable Development Goal – Zero Hunger (SDG2). We therefore discuss their possible combination with salt-tolerant crops based on bioengineering. INTRODUCTION According to the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it is necessary to follow 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to guarantee peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The purpose of SDG2 is to end hunger and ensure sufficient food for all people, particularly the poor. Sustainable food production systems need to be guaranteed through sustainable and resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity, maintain ecosystems, strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, and progressively improve land and soil quality. Unfortunately, the SGD2 target is at risk since climate change threatens global agriculture.1 At present, more than 8 billion people live on Earth. About 40% of the global population is located within 100 km from the coast, with over 600 million people at elevations less than 10 m asl.2 About 30% live in drylands where, according to UN-Habitat, the population growth rate was faster than in any other ecological zone. Important socioeconomic activities are located along coastal areas, and unfortunately, also a significant number of poor people. Global warming is threatening these regions by extremizing the hydrological cycle with an acceleration of the evapotranspiration and rainfall rate, megadroughts, flash droughts, and sea level rise. One of the effects, worsened by not optimal water resources management and excessive use of fertilizers, is the salinization of soils.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: sustainable soil agriculture people salinization food poor based rate climate hunger development global adaptation nature
• Soil salinization in agriculture: Mitigation and adaptation strategies combining nature-based solutions and bioengineering (2024) · iScience · cited 382× · doi

  ll OPEN ACCESS achieving long-term success of breeding programs aimed at the improvement of salt tolerance in crop plant varieties and mitigation of soil salinization effects in agriculture. CONCLUDING REMARKS In this perspective, two approaches to mitigate the growing phenomena of soil salinization in agriculture are proposed: NBSs and breeding for salt tolerance in crop plants. NBSs have the advantage of revitalizing ecosystem services and contributing to biodiversity conservation; however, they are not always feasible since climate conditions could be a limited factor for the effectiveness of some species. Bioengineering in selecting and creating salt-tolerant crops could be a valid alternative, especially for large-scale agricultural systems where preserving one crop is essential to guarantee a specific food need or some crops hold significant cultural and traditional importance for people living in the area. The indication is to implement both approaches to fully achieve SDG2 while guaranteeing environmental sustainability. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS P.T., G.B., and R.M. would like to acknowledge Agritech National Research Center supported by the European Union Next-GenerationEU (PIANO NAZIONALE DI RIPRESA E RESILIENZA(PNRR) – MISSIONE 4 COMPONENTE 2, INVESTIMENTO 1.4 – D.D. 1032 17/06/2022, CN00000022). The manuscript reflects only the authors’ views and opinions; neither the European Union nor the European Commission can be considered responsible for them. J.L. would like to acknowledge the Start-up funding from Inner Mongolia University (21800- 5223728). E.P. would also like to acknowledge financial support from the Ministry of Education of Singapore (AcRFs Tier1 RG142/22 and Tier2 MOE-T2EP402A20-0001). DECLARATION OF INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. REFERENCES 1. Wang, W., Pijl, A., and Tarolli, P. (2022). Future climate-zone shifts are threatening steep-slope agriculture. Nat. Food 3, 193–196. 2. UN (2017). Factsheet: People and Oceans General. In The Ocean Conference, New York, 5-9 June 2017. 3. Mukhopadhyay, R., Sarkar, B., Jat, H.S., Sharma, P.C., and Bolan, N.S. (2021). Soil salinity under climate change: Challenges for sustainable agriculture and food security. J. Environ. Manag. 280, 111736. 4. Giosan, L., Syvitski, J., Constantinescu, S., and Day, J. (2014). Climate change: Protect the world’s deltas. Nature 516, 31–33. 5. Rahman, M.M., Penny, G., Mondal, M.S., Zaman, M.H., Kryston, A., Salehin, M., Nahar, Q., Islam, M.S., Bolster, D., Tank, J.L., and Mu¨ ller, M. (2019). Salinization in large river deltas: Drivers, impacts and sociohydrological feedbacks. Water Security 6, 100024. 6. Eslami, S., Hoekstra, P., Minderhoud, P.S.J., Trung, N.N., Hoch, J.M., Sutanudjaja, E.H., Dung, D.D., Tho, T.Q., Voepel, H.E., Woillez, M.N., and Van Der Vegt, M. (2021). Projections of salt intrusion in a mega-delta under climatic and anthropogenic stressors. Commun. Earth Environ. 2, 142. 7.

  generalfuture workevidence 5/5
  Keywords: salt agriculture climate crop soil salinization food like acknowledge european breeding tolerance approaches nbss crops
• Biopriming with plant growth-promoting bacteria enhances germination and stress tolerance of Pinus nigra seeds under drought and salinity stress (2026) · Frontiers in Forests and Global Change · doi

  Drought and salinity stress can significantly reduce seed germination and plant establishment. Climate change is intensifying drought and soil salinity, posing significant challenges to afforestation and reforestation efforts. There is a need to develop sustainable strategies to enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stress.

  generalstated challengesevidence 5/5
  Keywords: drought salinity stress significantly reduce seed germination plant
• Combined Transcriptomics and Metabolomics to Analyze the Response of Foxtail Millet Under Salt Stress in Conjunction With Different Soil Amelioration Techniques (2025) · Food and Energy Security · doi

  Although combining different cultivation techniques can alleviate the harm of salt stress to crops to some extent, the specific metabolic mechanisms by which crops adapt to salt stress remain incompletely understood.

  generalabstractevidence 4/5
  Keywords: salt stress crops combining different cultivation techniques alleviate harm extent specific metabolic mechanisms adapt remain
• Soil salinization in agriculture: Mitigation and adaptation strategies combining nature-based solutions and bioengineering (2024) · iScience · cited 382× · doi

  Further research is needed to develop and implement effective nature-based solutions and breeding programs for salt tolerance in crop plants. Studies on the impact of climate change on soil salinization and food security are necessary. Research on the economic and social benefits of adopting sustainable agricultural practices is required.

  generalfuture-work sectionevidence 4/5
  Keywords: further research needed develop implement effective nature-based solutions
• Comparative study of seed germination and seedling development of tomato genotypes under different salinity levels (2026) · Plant Science Today · doi

  There is a need to identify salt-tolerant tomato genotypes. The effect of salinity on seed germination and seedling development of tomato genotypes is not well understood.

  generalstated research gapevidence 3/5
  Keywords: there need identify salt-tolerant tomato genotypes effect salinity

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