Advances in Genetics and Breeding of Salt Tolerance in Soybean

Salt stress is one of the major abiotic factors affecting crop growth and production. In general, soybean is sensitive to salt stress. The success of soybean improvement for salt tolerance depends on discovery and utilization of genetic variation in the germplasm. In this chapter, advance in salt-tolerant research and breeding was summarized by highlighting the genetic diversity, quantitative trait loci (QTL), identification of the major locus (Glyma03g32900), and improvement of soybean varieties in salt tolerance. The ion exclusion and tissue tolerance mechanisms regulated by this major locus are discussed. In addition, genomic resources and high-throughput phenotyping platforms that can facilitate a better understanding of phenotype-genotype association and formulate genomic-assisted breeding strategies are prospected.