Genetic Enhancement Of Crops For Tolerance To Abiotic Stress: Mechanisms And Approaches, Vol. I (sustainable Development And Biodiversity)

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 Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Functional Genomics Approach Towards Dissecting Out Abiotic Stress Tolerance Trait in Plants (Rohit Joshi, Brijesh K. Gupta, Ashwani Pareek, Mohan B. Singh, Sneh L. Singla-Pareek)....Pages 1-24 Plant miRNAome: Cross Talk in Abiotic Stressful Times (Prashanti Patel, Karuna Yadav, T. R. Ganapathi, Suprasanna Penna)....Pages 25-52 Epigenetic Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress: Nature, Consequences and Applications in Breeding (Manoj K. Dhar, Rahul Sharma, Parivartan Vishal, Sanjana Kaul)....Pages 53-72 Effect of Drought Stress and Utility of Transcriptomics in Identification of Drought Tolerance Mechanisms in Maize (Nidhi Singh, Shikha Mittal, Nepolean Thirunavukkarasu)....Pages 73-97 Physiological and Molecular Basis of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Wheat (H. M. Mamrutha, Rajender Singh, Davinder Sharma, Karnam Venkatesh, Girish Chandra Pandey, Rakesh Kumar et al.)....Pages 99-124 Molecular Chaperones: Key Players of Abiotic Stress Response in Plants (Suchismita Roy, Manjari Mishra, Om Prakash Dhankher, Sneh L. Singla-Pareek, Ashwani Pareek)....Pages 125-165 Role of Chromatin Assembly and Remodeling in Water Stress Responses in Plants (Shoib Ahmad Baba, Deepti Jain, Nasheeman Ashraf)....Pages 167-182 The ‘Omics’ Approach for Crop Improvement Against Drought Stress (Deepti Jain, Nasheeman Ashraf, J. P. Khurana, M. N. Shiva Kameshwari)....Pages 183-204 Genomic Strategies for Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants (Jyoti Taunk, Asha Rani, Richa Singh, Neelam R. Yadav, Ram C. Yadav)....Pages 205-230 Genomics of Arsenic Stress Response in Plants (Smita Kumar, Prabodh Kumar Trivedi)....Pages 231-248 Phytohormones Regulating the Master Regulators of CBF Dependent Cold Stress Signaling Pathway (Prakriti Kashyap, Renu Deswal)....Pages 249-264 Correction to: Genetic Enhancement of Crops for Tolerance to Abiotic Stress: Mechanisms and Approaches, Vol. I (Vijay Rani Rajpal, Deepmala Sehgal, Avinash Kumar, S. N. Raina)....Pages C1-C1 Back Matter ....Pages 265-268 Genetic Enhancement of Crops for Tolerance to Abiotic Stress: Mechanisms and Approaches, Volume I provides a consolidated update of the approaches taken to deepen our understanding of plants' morphological, physiological and molecular responses to various abiotic stresses and progresses made in unraveling and understanding the regulatory mechanisms, signaling pathways and cross talk among mechanisms operating under abiotic stress situations in various crops. The book includes articles on the diverse tools and technological approaches the use of which has improved our understanding of the intricate mechanisms operating in crop plants under abiotic stress conditions. The chapters describe the use of various 'omics' platforms such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, proteomics, microRNA and heat shock proteins as molecular players, phytohormone (s) regulation of stress signalling pathways, and various functional genomics approaches adopted by scientists to collate a wealth of information to understand abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms for crop improvement. In addition, chapters have been contributed on the burning topic of the role of chromatin remodeling under stress conditions and on the epigenetic dynamics via histones modifications that can improve stress tolerance in crops by enhancing the stress memory. We are very hopeful that the topics will be useful to a broad community of scientists working in similar areas and the outcomes discussed can provide useful leads to build strategies to generate abiotic stress tolerant varieties. .