Abiotic Stress Tolerance In Crop Plants

Abiotic stresses have become an integral part of crop production. One or other persist either in soil, water or in atmosphere. The information in the areas of injury and tolerant mechanisms, variability for tolerance, breeding and biotechnology for improvement of crop plants against abiotic stresses are lying unorganized in different articles of journals and edited books. This information is presented in this book in organized way with up-to-date citations, which will provide comprehensive literatures of recent advances. More emphasis has been given to elaborate the injury and tolerance mechanisms, and development of improved genotypes against stress environments. This book also deals with the plants' symptoms of particular abiotic stress, reclamation of soil and crop/cropping pattern to over come the effect of adverse condition(s). Each has been laid out with systematic approaches to develop abiotic stress tolerant genotypes using biotechnological tools. Use of molecular markers in stress tolerance and development of transgenic also have been detailed. Air pollution and climate change are the hot topic of the days. Thus, the effect of air pollution and climate change on crop plants have been detailed in the final three s of this book. Under abiotic stress, plant produces a large quantity of free radicals (oxidants), which have been elaborated in a separate 'Oxidative Stress'. This book has been divided into seven major parts- physical stress (salt), water stresses (drought and waterlogging), temperature stresses (heat and cold), metal toxicities (aluminium, iron, cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, copper, zinc etc) and non-metal toxicities (boron and arsenic), oxidative stress, and finally atmospheric stresses (air pollution, radiation and climate change). Hope, this book will be of greater use for the students and researchers, particularly Plant Breeders and Biotechnologists as well as the Botanists, to understand the injury and tolerance mechanisms, and subsequently improvement of crop genotypes for abiotic stresses.

Despite significant progress in increasing agricultural production, meeting the changing dietary preferences and increasing food demands of future populations remains a significant challenge. Salinity, drought, water logging, high temperature and toxicity are abiotic stresses that affect the crop yield and production. Tolerance for stress is a important characteristic that plants need to have in order to survive. Identification of proper techniques at a proper time can make it easy for scientists to increase crop productivity and yield. In Engineering Tolerance in Crop Plants against Abiotic Stress we have discussed the possible stresses and their impact on crops and portrayed distinctive abiotic stress tolerance in response to different techniques that can improve the performance of crops. Features of the Book: Provide a state-of-the-art description of the physiological, biochemical, and molecular status of the understanding of abiotic stress in plants. Address factors that threaten future food production and provide potential solution to these factors. Designed to cater to the needs of the students engaged in the field of environmental sciences, soil sciences, agricultural microbiology, plant pathology, and agronomy. New strategies for better crop productivity and yield. Understanding new techniques pointed out in this book will open the possibility of genetic engineering in crop plants with the concomitant improved stress tolerance.

Plants have to manage a series of environmental stresses throughout their entire lifespan. Among these, abiotic stress is the most detrimental; one that is responsible for nearly 50% of crop yield reduction and appears to be a potential threat to global food security in coming decades. Plant growth and development reduces drastically due to adverse effects of abiotic stresses. It has been estimated that crop can exhibit only 30% of their genetic potentiality under abiotic stress condition. So, this is a fundamental need to understand the stress responses to facilitate breeders to develop stress resistant and stress tolerant cultivars along with good management practices to withstand abiotic stresses. Also, a holistic approach to understanding the molecular and biochemical interactions of plants is important to implement the knowledge of resistance mechanisms under abiotic stresses. Agronomic practices like selecting cultivars that is tolerant to wide range of climatic condition, planting date, irrigation scheduling, fertilizer management could be some of the effective short-term adaptive tools to fight against abiotic stresses. In addition, “system biology” and “omics approaches” in recent studies offer a long-term opportunity at the molecular level in dealing with abiotic stresses. The genetic approach, for example, selection and identification of major conditioning genes by linkage mapping and quantitative trait loci (QTL), production of mutant genes and transgenic introduction of novel genes, has imparted some tolerant characteristics in crop varieties from their wild ancestors. Recently research has revealed the interactions between micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and plant stress responses exposed to salinity, freezing stress and dehydration. Accordingly transgenic approaches to generate stress-tolerant plant are one of the most interesting researches to date. This book presents the recent development of agronomic and molecular approaches in conferring plant abiotic stress tolerance in an organized way. The present volume will be of great interest among research students and teaching community, and can also be used as reference material by professional researchers.

The rapid population growth and the increase in the per capita income, especially in the group of emerging countries referred to as BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has created huge pressure for the expansion of the agricultural growing area and the crop yields to meet the rising demand. As a result, many areas that have been considered marginal for growing crops, due to their low fertility, drought, salinity, and many other abiotic stresses, have now been incorporated in the production system. Additionally, climate change has brought new challenges to agriculture to produce food, feed, fiber and biofuels. To cope with these new challenges, many plant breeding programs have reoriented their breeding scope to stress tolerance in the last years. The authors of this book have collected the most recent advances and discoveries applied to breeding for abiotic stresses in this book, starting with new physiological concepts and breeding methods, and moving on to discuss modern molecular biological approaches geared to the development of improved cultivars tolerant to most sorts of abiotic stress. Written in an easy to understand style, this book is an excellent reference work for students, scientists and farmers interested in learning how to breed for abiotic stresses scenarios, presenting the state-of-the-art in plant stresses and allowing the reader to develop a greater understanding of the basic mechanisms of tolerance to abiotic stresses and how to breed for them.

Priming-Mediated Stress and Cross-Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants provides the latest, in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms associated with the development of stress and cross-stress tolerance in plants. Plants growing under field conditions are constantly exposed, either sequentially or simultaneously, to many abiotic or biotic stress factors. As a result, many plants have developed unique strategies to respond to ever-changing environmental conditions, enabling them to monitor their surroundings and adjust their metabolic systems to maintain homeostasis. Recently, priming mediated stress and cross-stress tolerance (i.e., greater tolerance to a second, stronger stress after exposure to a different, milder primary stress) have attracted considerable interest within the scientific community as potential means of stress management and for producing stress-resistant crops to aid global food security. Priming-Mediated Stress and Cross-Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants comprehensively reviews the physiological, biochemical, and molecular basis of cross-tolerance phenomena, allowing researchers to develop strategies to enhance crop productivity under stressful conditions and to utilize natural resources more efficiently. The book is a valuable asset for plant and agricultural scientists in corporate or government environments, as well as educators and advanced students looking to promote future research into plant stress tolerance. Provides comprehensive information for developing multiple stress-tolerant crop varieties Includes in-depth physiological, biochemical, and molecular information associated with cross-tolerance Includes contribution from world-leading cross-tolerance research group Presents color images and diagrams for effective communication of key concepts

Plant development and productivity are negatively regulated by various environmental stresses. Abiotic stress factors such as heat, cold, drought, salinity, wounding, heavy metals toxicity, excess light, flooding, high speed wind, nutrient loss, anaerobic conditions and radiations etc. represent key elements limiting agricultural productivity worldwide. The loss of productivity is triggered by a series of morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular stress-induced changes. Such an unfavorable situation is in contrast with the increasing global food demand. . Global climatic pattern is becoming more unpredictable with increased occurrence of drought, flood, storm, heat waves, and sea water intrusion. It has been estimated that abiotic stresses are the principal cause for decreasing the average yield of major crops by more than 50 %, which causes losses worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year. Therefore, to feed the world population maintaining crop productivity even under unfavorable environment is a major area of concern for all nations. Developing crop plants with ability to tolerate abiotic stresses is need of the day which demands modern novel strategies for thorough understanding of plant's response to abiotic stresses. In this book we present a collection of chapters that are deals in the field of plant abiotic stress tolerance and crop improvement. The chapters provide a state-of-the-art account of the information available on abiotic stress tolerance and crop improvement.

Plants are frequently exposed to unfavorable and adverse environmental conditions known as abiotic stressors. These factors can include salinity, drought, heat, cold, flooding, heavy metals, and UV radiation which pose serious threats to the sustainability of crop yields. Since abiotic stresses are major constraints for crop production, finding the approaches to enhance stress tolerance is crucial to increase crop production and increase food security. This book discusses approaches to enhance abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants on a global scale. Plants scientists and breeders will learn how to further mitigate plant responses and develop new crop varieties for the changing climate.

Since recent years, the population across the globe is increasing expeditiously; hence increasing the agricultural productivity to meet the food demands of the thriving population becomes a challenging task. Abiotic stresses pose as a major threat to agricultural productivity. Having an adequate knowledge and apprehension of the physiology and molecular biology of stress tolerance in plants is a prerequisite for counteracting the adverse effect of such stresses to a wider range. This book deals with the responses and tolerance mechanisms of plants towards various abiotic stresses. The advent of molecular biology and biotechnology has shifted the interest of researchers towards unraveling the genes involved in stress tolerance. More effort is being made to understand and pave ways for developing stress tolerance mechanisms in crop plants. Several technologies including Microarray technology, functional genomics, on gel and off gel proteomic approaches have proved to be of utmost importance by helping the physiologists, molecular biologists and biotechnologists in identifying and exploiting various stress tolerance genes and factors for enhancing stress tolerance in plants. This book would serve as an exemplary source of scientific information pertaining to abiotic stress responses and tolerance mechanisms towards various abiotic stresses. Note: T&F does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.