article · Horticulturae
Soil salinisation presents a major challenge to global crop production by suppressing plant growth, yield, and quality. In response, research points to gamma-aminobutyric acid, known as GABA, as an important non-protein amino acid that supports plant resilience. GABA participates in nitrogen metabolism, balances carbon and nitrogen, and supplies carbon skeletons and energy via the GABA shunt. When plants experience salt stress, GABA rapidly accumulates to activate multiple protective physiological and biochemical mechanisms. It aids osmotic adjustment through osmolyte accumulation, protects essential cellular components like chloroplasts, and maintains photosynthetic efficiency. Additionally, GABA elevates antioxidant enzyme activities to curb reactive oxygen species, substantially reducing oxidative damage. Understanding these multifaceted pathways underscores the promise of utilising GABA as a natural biostimulant to support agricultural performance and maintain crop yields in salt-affected environments.
As agricultural soils face rising salinisation worldwide, sustaining crop production becomes increasingly difficult. Uncovering how natural compounds like GABA operate inside stressed plants clarifies biological strategies for mitigating salt damage. This helps identify natural biochemical interventions capable of preserving photosynthetic performance, reducing cellular injury, and protecting overall agricultural productivity under challenging climatic and soil conditions.
The findings highlight GABA as a prospective natural biostimulant for use by agricultural input manufacturers and farmers managing saline soils. Because the work focuses on reviewing and elucidating physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms, it remains at an early, conceptual stage. Translating GABA into practical agricultural biostimulant products will require targeted formulation development, field trials across specific crop varieties, and assessments of real-world application methods.
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Salinity has emerged as a critical abiotic stress factor, significantly limiting the growth, productivity, and quality of many crop species. As the global salinization of agricultural land continues to intensify, it is crucial to explore effective mitigation strategies to sustain crop yields. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-protein amino acid, is present in a variety of organisms, including plants, where it fulfills diverse roles under both optimal and stress conditions. In plants, GABA is intricately involved in nitrogen metabolism, amino acid biosynthesis, and the regulation of primary and secondary metabolic pathways. Functioning through the GABA shunt, it provides the carbon skeletons and energy required for biosynthetic processes and is vital for the regulation of carbon and nitrogen balance. Under abiotic stress conditions, particularly salinity, GABA rapidly accumulates, facilitating several protective mechanisms that help plants cope with stress. These include enhancing osmotic adjustment through the accumulation of osmolytes, protecting cellular structures such as chloroplasts, and improving chlorophyll fluorescence and photosynthetic efficiency. Moreover, GABA has been shown to boost antioxidant enzyme activity, reducing oxidative stress and mitigating the damage caused by reactive oxygen species (ROS) under salinity conditions. This study explores the multifaceted role of GABA in plants under saline environments, with a focus on its physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms in enhancing plant resilience. By elucidating these mechanisms, we aim to highlight the potential of GABA as a natural biostimulant to improve crop performance and sustainability in saline soils.
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DOI: 10.3390/horticulturae10121296
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