Abiotic Stress Adaptation In Plants

Environmental insults such as extremes of temperature, extremes of water status as well as deteriorating soil conditions pose major threats to agriculture and food security. Employing contemporary tools and techniques from all branches of science, attempts are being made worldwide to understand how plants respond to abiotic stresses with the aim to help manipulate plant performance that will be better suited to withstand these stresses. This book on abiotic stress attempts to search for possible answers to several basic questions related to plant responses towards abiotic stresses. Presented in this book is a holistic view of the general principles of stress perception, signal transduction and regulation of gene expression. Further, chapters analyze not only model systems but extrapolate interpretations obtained from models to crops. Lastly, discusses how stress-tolerant crop or model plants have been or are being raised through plant breeding and genetic engineering approaches. Twenty three chapters, written by international authorities, integrate molecular details with overall plant structure and physiology, in a text-book style, including key references.

Over the past decade, our understanding of plant adaptation to environmental stress has grown considerably. This book focuses on stress caused by the inanimate components of the environment associated with climatic, edaphic and physiographic factors that substantially limit plant growth and survival. Categorically these are abiotic stresses, which include drought, salinity, non-optimal temperatures and poor soil nutrition. Another stress, herbicides, is covered in this book to highlight how plants are impacted by abiotic stress originating from anthropogenic sources. The book also addresses the high degree to which plant responses to quite diverse forms of environmental stress are interconnected, describing the ways in which the plant utilizes and integrates many common signals and subsequent pathways to cope with less favorable conditions. The book is directed at researchers and professionals in plant physiology, cell biology and molecular biology, in both the academic and industrial sectors.

Key features: Serves as a cutting-edge resource for researchers and students who are studying plant abiotic stress tolerance and crop improvement through metabolic adaptations Presents the latest trends and developments in the field of metabolic engineering and abiotic stress tolerance Addresses the adaptation of plants to climatic changes Gives special attention to emerging topics such as the role of secondary metabolites, small RNA mediated regulation and signaling molecule responses to stresses Provides extensive references that serve as entry points for further research Metabolic Adaptations in Plants during Abiotic Stress covers a topic of past, present and future interest for both scientists and policy makers as the global challenge of climate change is addressed. Understanding the mechanisms of plant adaptation to environmental stresses can provide the necessary tools needed to take action to protect them, and hence ourselves. This book brings together recent findings about metabolic adaptations during abiotic stress and in diverse areas of plant adaptation. It covers not only the published results, but also introduces new concepts and findings to offer original views on the perspectives and challenges in this field.

World population is growing at an alarming rate and is anticipated to reach about six billion by the end of year 2050. On the other hand, agricultural productivity is not increasing at a required rate to keep up with the food demand. The reasons for this are water shortages, depleting soil fertility and mainly various abiotic stresses. The fast pace at which developments and novel findings that are recently taking place in the cutting edge areas of molecular biology and basic genetics, have reinforced and augmented the efficiency of science outputs in dealing with plant abiotic stresses. In depth understanding of the stresses and their effects on plants is of paramount importance to evolve effective strategies to counter them. This book is broadly dived into sections on the stresses, their mechanisms and tolerance, genetics and adaptation, and focuses on the mechanic aspects in addition to touching some adaptation features. The chief objective of the book hence is to deliver state of the art information for comprehending the nature of abiotic stress in plants. We attempted here to present a judicious mixture of outlooks in order to interest workers in all areas of plant sciences.

This two-volume set highlights the various innovative and emerging techniques and molecular applications that are currently being used in plant abiotic stress physiology. Volume 1: Responses and Adaptations focuses on the responses and adaptations of plants to stress factors at the cellular and molecular levels and offers a variety of advanced management strategies and technologies. Volume 2: Molecular Advancements introduces a range of state-of-the-art molecular advances for the mitigation of abiotic stress in plants. With contributions from specialists in the field, Volume 1 first discusses the physiology and defense mechanisms of plants and the various kinds of stress, such as from challenging environments, climate change, and nutritional deficiencies. It goes on to discuss trailblazing management techniques that include genetics approaches for improving abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants along with CRISPR/CAS-mediated genome editing technologies. Volume 2 discusses how plants have developed diverse physiological and molecular adjustments to safeguard themselves under challenging conditions and how emerging new technologies can utilize these plant adaptations to enhance plant resistance. These include using plant-environment interactions to develop crop species that are resilient to climate change, applying genomics and phenomics approaches from the study of abiotic stress tolerance and more. Agriculture today faces countless challenges to meet the rising need for sustainable food supplies and guarantees of high-quality nourishment for a quickly increasing population. To ensure sufficient food production, it is necessary to address the difficult environmental circumstances that are causing cellular oxidative stress in plants due to abiotic factors, which play a defining role in shaping yield of crop plants. These two volumes help to meet these challenges by providing a rich source of information on plant abiotic stress physiology and effective management techniques.