‘Omics’ approaches in developing combined drought and heat tolerance in food crops

• Published in: Plant cell reports Vol. 41; no. 3; pp. 699 - 739
• Main Authors: Bhardwaj, Anjali, Devi, Poonam, Chaudhary, Shikha, Rani, Anju, Jha, Uday Chand, Kumar, Shiv, Bindumadhava, H., Prasad, P. V. Vara, Sharma, Kamal Dev, Siddique, Kadambot H. M., Nayyar, Harsh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agronomy; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Cell Biology; Chlorophyll; Chlorophyll - metabolism; Climate change; Crop resilience; Crops; Crops, Agricultural - genetics; Crops, Agricultural - metabolism; Deciphering the Drought and Thermo-tolerance Mechanisms in Plants: The Road Ahead of Future Research; Drought; Droughts; Environmental stress; Fluorescence; Genetic engineering; Genetically altered foods; Genotypes; Heat stress; Heat tolerance; Homeostasis; Life Sciences; Metabolic response; Metabolism; Metabolites; Moisture content; Photosynthesis; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Sciences; Proteomics; Reactive Oxygen Species; Review; Scavenging; Stomata; Stomatal conductance; Stress, Physiological; Thermotolerance - genetics; Water content; Legumes; Metabolomics; Cereals; Genomics; Proteomics; High temperature; Water stress
• ISSN: 0721-7714; 1432-203X
• DOI: 10.1007/s00299-021-02742-0

Global climate change will significantly increase the intensity and frequency of hot, dry days. The simultaneous occurrence of drought and heat stress is also likely to increase, influencing various agronomic characteristics, such as biomass and other growth traits, phenology, and yield-contributing traits, of various crops. At the same time, vital physiological traits will be seriously disrupted, including leaf water content, canopy temperature depression, membrane stability, photosynthesis, and related attributes such as chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance, and chlorophyll fluorescence. Several metabolic processes contributing to general growth and development will be restricted, along with the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that negatively affect cellular homeostasis. Plants have adaptive defense strategies, such as ROS-scavenging mechanisms, osmolyte production, secondary metabolite modulation, and different phytohormones, which can help distinguish tolerant crop genotypes. Understanding plant responses to combined drought/heat stress at various organizational levels is vital for developing stress-resilient crops. Elucidating the genomic, proteomic, and metabolic responses of various crops, particularly tolerant genotypes, to identify tolerance mechanisms will markedly enhance the continuing efforts to introduce combined drought/heat stress tolerance. Besides agronomic management, genetic engineering and molecular breeding approaches have great potential in this direction.