Soil salinity is a major environmental constraint that severely limits the yield and quality of global crops, including soybean. As salt-affected land expands, there is an urgent and growing need to develop green, efficient, and sustainable technologies to enhance crop resilience while safeguarding ecological sustainability. To address this challenge, the researchers developed a novel nano-biostimulant (SeG) by combining chitosan-stabilized selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs@CS) with glutathione (GSH). This synergistic composite offers a new paradigm for enhancing salt tolerance by coordinating the plant’s endogenous signaling pathways with the functions of its rhizosphere microbial community.
Experimental results demonstrated that the application of SeG significantly alleviates the inhibitory effects of salt stress on soybean growth, which performs substantially better than the individual treatments of SeNPs@CS or GSH. Physiological evaluations showed that SeG effectively maintains photosynthetic stability, enhances antioxidant enzyme activities, and reduces lipid peroxidation. Beyond these direct physiological protections, multi-omics analyses revealed that SeG triggers metabolic reprogramming by activating the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway and promoting the secretion of arbutin in root exudates. Arbutin acts as a key signaling molecule that promotes the growth of Bacillus RSB1, Streptomyces RSS, Penicillium RSP, and Aspergillus RSA and facilitates their colonization in the soybean rhizosphere.
Functional validation through a synthetic microbial community (SynCom) confirmed that the recruitment of these specific microbes is essential for the observed salt tolerance. Furthermore, this SeG-mediated strategy demonstrated stable yield improvements in field trials, as well as cross-species efficacy in other crops such as tomato and maize. In summary, this work provides an innovative “plant-metabolite-microbe” framework for developing next-generation smart nano-fertilizers, offering a promising solution for sustainable agriculture in saline-alkaline environments.
See the article:
Mining salt stress-related genes in Spartina alterniflora via analyzing coevolution signal across 365 plant species using phylogenetic profiling
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2662173826000032
aBIOTECH
Selenium nanoparticles and glutathione synergistically enhance salt tolerance in soybean via the jasmonic acid pathway and arbutin-regulated rhizosphere microbiota
11-Feb-2026