A new perspective of phytohormones in salinity tolerance: Regulation of proline metabolism

• Salinity tolerance strategies are required for sustainable plant development.
• Proline may act as target tool for salinity tolerance.
• Phytohormones provide signals for proline accumulation and salinity tolerance.

Salinity is one of the most challenging problems that adversely affects growth and development of plants. Plants adopt various strategies to overcome the adverse effects of salinity stress. In recent years, phytohormones and osmolytes have been involved in reducing the adverse effect of salinity stress. Under salinity stress, osmolyte such as proline maintains cellular homeostasis through osmotic regulation and induces physiological processes favorably. The role of phytohormones under salinity stress is critical in modulating physiological responses that eventually lead to adaptation of plants to an unfavorable environment. The individual role of both proline and phytohormones has been extensively studied, but a comprehensive study on the interaction of phytohormones with proline under salinity stress is lacking. The present review focuses on enhancing our understanding on the mechanism of salinity tolerance via proline and phytohormones with emphasis on phytohormones interaction with proline under salinity stress.