ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1578023
Foliar Magnesium Enhances Rice Salt Tolerance by Improving Photosynthesis and Regulating Ion HomeostasisFoliar Magnesium Application Enhances Rice Salt Tolerance by Improving Photosynthesis Performance and Regulating Ion Homeostasis
Provisionally accepted
Yang Liu
Qi ZhuRongkai LiRenyuan WeiXiaoyu GengXiang Zhang
Huanhe Wei
Pinglei GaoKe XuQi-gen Dai
Yinglong Chen*- Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
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How to increase crop yield in coastal saline-alkali land has become a focus and hot topic of concern for researchers. Field experiments were conducted to identify whether foliar application of magnesium sulfate (MgSO₄•7H₂O) can enhance rice salt tolerance and improve rice yield.Treatments with four concentrations of MgSO₄•7H₂O (10 g L -1 ,20 g L -1 ,30 g L -1 , and 40 g L -1 ) were applied during the jointing and heading stages of rice in three fields with different salt levels in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province, China in 2022 and 2023. Results showed that the application of magnesium sulfate, even the lowest concentration of MgSO4, could significantly increase the rice yield and total biomass under all the three salt treatments, while the increase displayed more obvious under higher salt treatment. Magnesium sulfate treatment enhanced the Rubisco enzyme activity and total chlorophyll content in rice flag leaves, delayed leaf tip wilt, and thus improved the photosynthetic capacity of rice. Additionally, magnesium sulfate treatment significantly reduced the accumulation of toxic sodium ions (Na⁺) in rice compared to the untreated control, accompanied with notable enhancement of Mg/Na, K/Na, P/Na, and Ca/Na. This study found that magnesium sulfate could enhance the salt tolerance of rice in coastal saline-alkali soils, whereas the effects vary significantly among different concentrations. Under 20 g L⁻¹ of MgSO4 treatment, rice leaves exhibited the highest net photosynthetic rate and total chlorophyll content, while the incidence of leaf tip wilt and the accumulation of toxic sodium ions (Na⁺) were minimized, resulting in the highest yield and total biomass. Therefore, 20 g L⁻¹ of MgSO4 is likely to be recommended as the optimal application concentration in saline-alkali areas.
Keywords: ：Rice (Oryza sativa L), salinity stress, Magnesium, Coastal saline-alkali land, Ion Homeostasis;
Received: 17 Feb 2025; Accepted: 22 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Liu, Zhu, Li, Wei, Geng, Zhang, Wei, Gao, Xu, Dai and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yinglong Chen, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
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