Systems Biology Approach for Elucidation of Plant Responses to Salinity Stress

Salinity is one of the most detrimental abiotic stress factors responsible for qualitative and quantitative deterioration in global crop production. By considering the inclusive food requirements, deciphering the complex salinity-mediated responses in plants is significant to develop salt-tolerant crops with higher yields. The recent advancements in analytical technologies have made possible to investigate and generate huge amount of data. Various tools have been successfully employed to check salt-induced alterations at genome, transcriptome, proteome, and metabolome levels of plants. Omics tools in combination with computational biological analysis have provided important information, which can be used to generate biological databases as well as in silico tools. Hence this combinatorial approach of omics-systems biology is currently considered as ultimate path in plant stress physiology analysis, which aims to improve agronomic characters. The present chapter is therefore focused on omics-mediated systems biology-based investigations targeting salinity responses in plants. This chapter also highlights precise computational tools and databases to analyze transcription factors, quantitative trait loci, and small RNAs. Collectively, the chapter illustrates the system biology approach as an essential and convenient tool in salinity studies.