Salt stress and tomato resilience: understanding somatic and intergenerational priming mechanisms in plant adaptation

Аннотация

Salt stress is a major environmental challenge that impacts agricultural productivity worldwide. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), a widely cultivated crop, is highly sensitive to salinity, which affects growth, yield, and quality. Recent studies have shown that tomato plants have the ability to adapt to salt stress through mechanisms such as somatic and intergenerational priming memory. Somatic priming refers to the ability of an individual plant to enhance its tolerance to stress after a previous exposure, while intergenerational priming involves the transmission of stress-induced adaptive traits from parent plants to their offspring. This paper examines the physiological, molecular, and epigenetic processes involved in these priming mechanisms, highlighting how these forms of memory can contribute to improved tomato resilience in saline environments. Understanding these processes provides a foundation for developing salt-tolerant tomato varieties through breeding and biotechnological approaches. Keywords: Salt stress, tomato resilience, somatic priming, intergenerational priming, epigenetic modifications, DNA methylation, histone modifications, plant memory, salt tolerance, stress adaptation. enhanced stress tolerance within an individual plant, Introduction: Salt stress is a key environmental factor while intergenerational priming involves the transfer of that limits the growth and productivity of many crops, stress-induced traits to the next generation. including tomatoes. High salinity in soil and irrigation water disrupts the plant’s ability to absorb water, This study explores the role of somatic and interferes with nutrient uptake, and induces oxidative intergenerational priming memory in enhancing stress, ultimately impairing plant growth. As global tomato plant resilience to salt stress. By understanding salinity levels rise due to both natural and these adaptive mechanisms, we can improve tomato anthropogenic factors, understanding how plants cultivation in saline environments through breeding, adapt to salt stress is crucial for developing resilient genetic manipulation, and sustainable agricultural crops. practices. Tomato plants, which are sensitive to salinity, exhibit METHODS various physiological and biochemical responses to Plant Material and Growth Conditions mitigate the harmful effects of salt stress. Recent Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, variety "Roma") seeds research has focused on the concept of plant memory, were selected for the experiment, as this variety is wherein plants "remember" prior stress exposure and widely grown and sensitive to salt stress. Seeds were modify their response to future stress events. These germinated in a controlled environment at 25°C with 16 memory processes are categorized into somatic and hours of light and 8 hours of darkness. Once seedlings intergenerational priming. Somatic priming refers to American Journal Of Agriculture And Horticulture Innovations 1 https://theusajournals.com/index.php/ajahi American Journal Of Agriculture And Horticulture Innovations (ISSN: 2771-2559) reached the three-leaf stage, they were transplanted exposure, plants under salt stress (especially at 100 and into pots containing a mixture of peat moss and perlite 150 mM NaCl) showed stunted growth, reduced leaf (3:1). The plants were grown under greenhouse number, and a decline in chlorophyll content. However, conditions with a temperature of 22°C, 70% relative when these same plants were subjected to a second humidity, and a 12-hour light/dark cycle. round of salt stress, they displayed improved tolerance. Notably, plants that had undergone an initial exposure Salt Stress Treatment to 50 mM NaCl showed enhanced photosynthetic Salt stress was induced by irrigating tomato plants with activity, higher stomatal conductance, and better root nutrient solutions containing varying concentrations of biomass in the second round of stress exposure, NaCl (0, 50, 100, 150 mM) to simulate mild, moderate, compared to plants that had never been exposed to and severe salinity conditions. The control group salt. received only a nutrient solution without salt. Plants This enhanced tolerance in previously stressed plants were exposed to salt stress for 21 days, and growth suggests the presence of somatic priming memory, parameters such as plant height, leaf number, and where initial stress exposure triggers physiological and chlorophyll content were monitored regularly. molecular adaptations that prepare the plant for Somatic Priming Memory Assessment subsequent stress events. To evaluate somatic priming, tomato plants were Intergenerational Priming Response to Salt Stress exposed to salt stress for the first time, and their Offspring plants derived from salt-stressed parents (50 responses were recorded in terms of growth and mM and 100 mM NaCl) showed a greater tolerance to physiological changes. After the initial exposure, a salt stress than those grown from control seeds. These subset of plants