Molecular Mechanism of Karrikin-Mediated Salt-Alkali Tolerance in Rice Seedlings

We analyzed the regulation of salt-alkali tolerance in rice seedlings by Karrikin and found that exogenous application of appropriate concentrations of KARs significantly enhanced the resistance of rice seedlings to salt-alkali stress. Subsequently, we investigated the receptor gene D14-Like of KARs in rice and discovered that, compared to the wild type, mutants with knocked-out D14-Like gene exhibited extremely high sensitivity to salt-alkali stress. This indicates that the Karrikin signaling pathway is involved in regulating rice resistance to salt-alkali stress, though its regulatory mechanism remains unclear. This study will further investigate this issue. The findings reveal the mechanism by which Karrikin signaling regulates salt-alkali tolerance in rice, providing insights for improving crop yield in soda saline-alkali soils.