Molecular Mechanisms And Genetics Of Plant Resistance To Abiotic Stress

We are currently experiencing a climate crisis that is associated with extreme weather events worldwide. Some of its most noticeable effects are increases in temperatures, droughts, and desertification. These effects are already making whole regions unsuitable for agriculture. Therefore, we urgently need global measures to mitigate the effects of climate breakdown as well as crop alternatives that are more stress-resilient. These crop alternatives can come from breeding new varieties of well-established crops, such as wheat and barley. They can also come from promoting underutilized crop species that are naturally tolerant to some stresses, such as quinoa. Either way, we need to gather more knowledge on how plants respond to stresses related to climate breakdown, such as heat, water-deficit, flooding high salinity, nitrogen, and heavy metal stress. This Special Issue provides a timely collection of recent advances in the understanding of plant responses to these stresses. This information will definitely be useful to the design of new strategies to prevent the loss of more cultivable land and to reclaim the land that has already been declared unsuitable.

We are currently experiencing a climate crisis that is associated with extreme weather events worldwide. Some of its most noticeable effects are increases in temperatures, droughts, and desertification. These effects are already making whole regions unsuitable for agriculture. Therefore, we urgently need global measures to mitigate the effects of climate breakdown as well as crop alternatives that are more stress-resilient. These crop alternatives can come from breeding new varieties of well-established crops, such as wheat and barley. They can also come from promoting underutilized crop species that are naturally tolerant to some stresses, such as quinoa. Either way, we need to gather more knowledge on how plants respond to stresses related to climate breakdown, such as heat, water-deficit, flooding high salinity, nitrogen, and heavy metal stress. This Special Issue provides a timely collection of recent advances in the understanding of plant responses to these stresses. This information will definitely be useful to the design of new strategies to prevent the loss of more cultivable land and to reclaim the land that has already been declared unsuitable.

Plant responses to environmental stress are governed by complex molecular and biochemical signal transduction processes, which act in coordination to determine tolerance or sensitivity at the whole plant level. Upon exposure to abiotic stress, plants express a sophisticated coordinated response to reprogram interconnected defense networks and metabolic pathways, by alterations in the transcription, translation, and post-translational modification of defense-related genes and proteins. Traditionally, physiological and phenotypic responses were the major ones to be collected in plant stress biology. However, modern studies include the identification of key genes that influence stress tolerance and plant growth under the imposing stress and the verification of gene functions using knock out mutants or overexpression lines. In addition, genomics has become a necessary tool for the understanding of plant stress responses at the whole genome levels. The identification of stress-tolerant plant resources and the investigation of the functional role of the genetic variants is also a valuable tool in this research field. Recently, the advent of CRISPR/Cas genome editing technology, enables these variations to be introduced in crops for improved stress tolerance traits. Through the understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in plant signaling in response to abiotic stress and crop performance characters under stress conditions, we hope to open new ways for the breeding of superior crops.

Abiotic stresses are the major cause that limits productivity of crop plants worldwide. Plants have developed intricate machinery to respond and adapt over these adverse environmental conditions both at physiological and molecular levels. Due to increasing problems of abiotic stresses, plant biotechnologists and breeders need to employ new approaches to improve abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Although current research has divulged several key genes, gene regulatory networks and quantitative trait loci that mediate plant responses to various abiotic stresses, the comprehensive understanding of this complex trait is still not available. This e-book is focused on molecular genetics and genomics approaches to understand the plant response/adaptation to various abiotic stresses. It includes different types of articles (original research, method, opinion and review) that provide current insights into different aspects of plant responses and adaptation to abiotic stresses.

Abiotic stresses caused by drought, salinity, toxic metals, temperature extremes, and nutrient poor soils are among the major constraints to plant growth and crop production worldwide. While crop breeding strategies to improve yields have progressed, a better understanding of the genetic and biological mechanisms underpinning stress adaptation is needed. Genes For Plant Abiotic Stress presents the latest research on recently examined genes and alleles and guides discussion of the genetic and physiological determinants that will be important for crop improvement in the future.

Transcription Factors for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants highlights advances in the understanding of the regulatory network that impacts plant health and production, providing important insights for improving plant resistance. Plant production worldwide is suffering serious losses due to widespread abiotic stresses increasing as a result of global climate change. Frequently more than one abiotic stress can occur at once, for example extreme temperature and osmotic stress, which increases the complexity of these environmental stresses. Modern genetic engineering technologies are one of the promising tools for development of plants with efficient yields and resilience to abiotic stresses. Hence deciphering the molecular mechanisms and identifying the abiotic stress associated genes that control plant response to abiotic stresses is a vital requirement in developing plants with increased abiotic stress resilience. Addressing the various complexities of transcriptional regulation, this book includes chapters on cross talk and central regulation, regulatory networks, the role of DOF, WRKY and NAC transcription factors, zinc finger proteins, CRISPR/CAS9-based genome editing, C-Repeat (CRT) binding factors (CBFs)/Dehydration responsive element binding factors (DREBs) and factors impacting salt, cold and phosphorous stress levels, as well as transcriptional modulation of genes involved in nanomaterial-plant interactions. Transcription Factors for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants provides a useful reference by unravelling the transcriptional regulatory networks in plants. Researchers and advanced students will find this book a valuable reference for understanding this vital area. Discusses abiotic stress tolerance and adaptive mechanisms based on the findings generated by unlocking the transcriptional regulatory network in plants Presents various kinds of regulatory gene networks identified for drought, salinity, cold and heat stress in plants Highlights urgent climate change issues in plants and their mitigation using modern biotechnological tools including genome editing.

Abiotic stresses such as drought (water deficit), extreme temperatures (cold, frost and heat), salinity (sodicity) and mineral (metal and metalloid) toxicity limit productivity of crop plants worldwide and are big threats to global food security. With worsening climate change scenarios, these stresses will further increase in intensity and frequency. Improving tolerance to abiotic stresses, therefore, has become a major objective in crop breeding programs. A lot of research has been conducted on the regulatory mechanisms, signaling pathways governing these abiotic stresses, and cross talk among them in various model and non-model species. Also, various ‘omics’ platforms have been utilized to unravel the candidate genes underpinning various abiotic stresses, which have increased our understanding of the tolerance mechanisms at structural, physiological, transcriptional and molecular level. Further, a wealth of information has been generated on the role of chromatin assembly and its remodeling under stress and on the epigenetic dynamics via histones modifications. The book consolidates outlooks, perspectives and updates on the research conducted by scientists in the abovementioned areas. The information covered in this book will therefore interest workers in all areas of plant sciences. The results presented on multiple crops will be useful to scientists in building strategies to counter these stresses in plants. In addition, students who are beginners in the areas of abiotic stress tolerance will find this book handy to clear their concepts and to get an update on the research conducted in various crops at one place

Plants under abiotic stress are those suffering from drought, extreme temperatures, flood and other natural—but non-living—factors. Abiotic stress is responsible for reduced yields in several major crops, and climate change is focusing research in this area. To minimize cellular damage cause by such stresses, plants have evolved complex, well-coordinated adaptive responses that operate at the transcriptional level. Understanding these processes is key to manipulating plant performance to withstand stress. This book deals with the role of gene silencing in the adaptation of plants to these stresses, and documents the molecular regulatory systems for the abiotic response.