Effect of salicylic acid on the interaction between ethylene and polyamines in the short term response of glycophyte Solanum lycopersicum and the wild-related halophyte Solanum chilense to salinity stress

Salinity is now a major critical environmental stress limiting agriculture world-wide. To meet the needs of the expanding population agricultural food, production needs to increase between 50 and 70 % by 2050. There is a strong interest to understand how these environmental changes affect plant growth. Tomato is one of the most important fruit production (>159 Mt20) and in addition to its economical importance, it is suitable for physiological and molecular research. Although cultivated tomato is quite sensitive to salt toxicity, several of its wild relatives are able to cope with high salinity levels and exhibit halophyte properties . Solanum chilense is spontaneously present in a salt-affected areas of North Chile and is able to grow in diverse environments and to cope with many biotic and abiotic constraints4 . Comparing the behavior of the cultivated glycophyte S. lycopersicum with its wild-relative halophyte plant species S. chilense will help to unravel the strategies of plant response to salt stress and may also lead to identification of genes able to confer salt resistance to the cultivated tomato