Responses of halophytes to salt stress.

Halophytes, plants naturally adapted to conditions of high salinity in the soil, have been the subject of many different studies but, paradoxically, not so much to investigate the mechanisms of salt tolerance at the biochemical and molecular level. Halophytes can be considered important, but underutilised, genetic resources for the identification of salt tolerance determinants. We present here a brief summary of the initial results of our ongoing, multidisciplinary studies on the general responses to salt stress in halophytes of the genera Plantago and Juncus, focusing on the effect of NaCl on seed germination, vegetative growth, reproductive development, and on the accumulation of mono and divalent cations and putative osmolytes in the aerial part of the plants.