scholarly journals Biotechnology and Drought Stress Tolerance in Plants

2020 ◽  
pp. 34-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gali Adamu Ishaku ◽  
Daniel Thakuma Tizhe ◽  
Raji Arabi Bamanga ◽  
Elizabeth Toyin Afolabi

Drought stress in plants has become one of the major abiotic stress that limits the growth and development of plants which also contributes to low yields. Biotechnology which has new and emerging techniques can be use to solve the problem of drought stress in plants. This review aimed at identifying drought stress tolerance in plants at different stages, how plants respond to drought stress using different methods and the application of different biotechnology methods to improve drought tolerance in plants. Some important parameters about drought stress in plants such as drought tolerance mechanisms, plants responses to drought stress, gene regulation for drought stress tolerance in plants, effects of drought stress at different stages of plant growth and biotechnology methods in developing drought tolerance in plants was reviewed. The use of biotechnology methods such as classical breeding, use of genetic manipulation, genes from resurrection plants and Protoplast fusion was discussed. Drought stress affects our plants seriously and it leads to wilts, reduction of yields and death of plants at different developmental stages. Plants have developed different mechanisms to respond to drought stress but these mechanisms are not sufficient enough without the application of biotechnology to greatly improve the growth, development and increase yield in pants. The use of biotechnology greatly improves plants ability to tolerate drought stress depending on the plant species and period of exposure. The use of biotechnology methods has become very vital in improving plants drought stress so as to overcome the major problems of plants which includes increase in population and climatic change.

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 3225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tinashe Zenda ◽  
Songtao Liu ◽  
Xuan Wang ◽  
Hongyu Jin ◽  
Guo Liu ◽  
...  

Drought stress is the major abiotic factor threatening maize (Zea mays L.) yield globally. Therefore, revealing the molecular mechanisms fundamental to drought tolerance in maize becomes imperative. Herein, we conducted a comprehensive comparative analysis of two maize inbred lines contrasting in drought stress tolerance based on their physiological and proteomic responses at the seedling stage. Our observations showed that divergent stress tolerance mechanisms exist between the two inbred-lines at physiological and proteomic levels, with YE8112 being comparatively more tolerant than MO17 owing to its maintenance of higher relative leaf water and proline contents, greater increase in peroxidase (POD) activity, along with decreased level of lipid peroxidation under stressed conditions. Using an iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification)-based method, we identified a total of 721 differentially abundant proteins (DAPs). Amongst these, we fished out five essential sets of drought responsive DAPs, including 13 DAPs specific to YE8112, 107 specific DAPs shared between drought-sensitive and drought-tolerant lines after drought treatment (SD_TD), three DAPs of YE8112 also regulated in SD_TD, 84 DAPs unique to MO17, and five overlapping DAPs between the two inbred lines. The most significantly enriched DAPs in YE8112 were associated with the photosynthesis antenna proteins pathway, whilst those in MO17 were related to C5-branched dibasic acid metabolism and RNA transport pathways. The changes in protein abundance were consistent with the observed physiological characterizations of the two inbred lines. Further, quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis results confirmed the iTRAQ sequencing data. The higher drought tolerance of YE8112 was attributed to: activation of photosynthesis proteins involved in balancing light capture and utilization; enhanced lipid-metabolism; development of abiotic and biotic cross-tolerance mechanisms; increased cellular detoxification capacity; activation of chaperones that stabilize other proteins against drought-induced denaturation; and reduced synthesis of redundant proteins to help save energy to battle drought stress. These findings provide further insights into the molecular signatures underpinning maize drought stress tolerance.


2020 ◽  
Vol 80 (01) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhupender Kumar ◽  
Krishan Kumar ◽  
Shankar Lal Jat ◽  
Shraddha Srivastava ◽  
Tanu Tiwari ◽  
...  

Drought stress is the major production constraint in rainfed maize. Screening for drought tolerance is severely affected by the lack of a simple and reliable phenotyping technique. The objective of this study was to standardize a simple hydroponic based drought screening technique in maize. In this context, one week old uniform seedlings of 55 inbreds and 5 hybrids were transferred to hydroponic solution in the glass house. The seedlings were allowed to acclimatize for next one week in hydroponic solution. The drought stress was imposed by removing seedlings from nutrient solution and exposed to air for 6 and 4 hours daily for a period of 5 and 4 consecutive days in hybrids and inbreds, respectively. Data were recorded on all shoot and root parameters, and based on stress symptoms, a drought tolerance score was given to each genotype. The percent deductions in shoot and root fresh weight from non-stress to stress ranged from 11.7 to 84.4 and 2.1 to 77.5, respectively. Six inbred lines, namely, DQL790-4, CML334, CM140, CML422, CM125 and HKI488 and three hybrids namely DMRH1306, DMRH1410 and PMH4 were found drought tolerant. The effectiveness of this screening technique was compared and confirmed using pots screening as well as by expression profiling of key antioxidant genes (Sod2, Sod4, Sod9 and Apx1) playing role in drought stress tolerance. This phenotyping technique is very short, low cost and simple which can be utilized in preliminary drought screening for large set of maize germplasm and mapping populations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1208-1215
Author(s):  
Tuan Minh Nguy ◽  
Thang Thanh Tran ◽  
Huong Thanh Tran

In recent years, drought stress was strongly affected on the development and yield of tomatoes. There are increasing interests in the study of physiological transformations in adaption to stress in plants In this study, effects of drought stress (mannitol at different concentration) on the development of tomato shoot were studied. Morphological and physiological changes during the development of shoot under drought stress conditions were analyzed. Based on the analysis results, the combination of cytokinin and gibberellin was treated to increase the drought stress tolerance of plants. Results showed that mannitol at 20 g/L induced tomato drought stress. Shoot height, number of leaves, leaf area, and the number of roots significantly decreased in the drought stress condition compared to the control. The formation superoxide (O2-) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) occurred in the meristem, elongation region and cap of the roots in the drought stress condition instead of only cap root in the control. In the drought stress condition, there was an increase in respiration intensity, proline and carotenoid content, and abscisic acid activity. In contrast, the content of chlorophyll, photosynthesis intensity, cytokinin and gibberellin activity decreased in comparison with the control. The combination treatment of zeatin 0.5 mg/L and GA3 0.5 mg/L improved the drought stress tolerance of plants. The shoot height, number of leaves, leaf area and number of roots of the treated plants were higher than those of the control plants.


Author(s):  
Pardeep Kumar ◽  
Mukesh Choudhary ◽  
B. S. Jat ◽  
M. C. Dagla ◽  
Vishal Singh ◽  
...  

Abstract This chapter focuses on target traits for drought stress, progress in mapping for drought tolerance-associated genes/QTLs identification and expression studies and introgression strategies followed by the possibilities of integrating the concept of speed breeding in maize drought breeding programmes for better utilization of wild relatives.


Author(s):  
Polavarpu B. Kavi Kishor ◽  
Kalladan Rajesh ◽  
Palakolanu S. Reddy ◽  
Christiane Seiler ◽  
Nese Sreenivasulu

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (17) ◽  
pp. 4199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ali Bahadur ◽  
Asfa Batool ◽  
Fahad Nasir ◽  
Shengjin Jiang ◽  
Qin Mingsen ◽  
...  

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establish symbiotic interaction with 80% of known land plants. It has a pronounced impact on plant growth, water absorption, mineral nutrition, and protection from abiotic stresses. Plants are very dynamic systems having great adaptability under continuously changing drying conditions. In this regard, the function of AMF as a biological tool for improving plant drought stress tolerance and phenotypic plasticity, in terms of establishing mutualistic associations, seems an innovative approach towards sustainable agriculture. However, a better understanding of these complex interconnected signaling pathways and AMF-mediated mechanisms that regulate the drought tolerance in plants will enhance its potential application as an innovative approach in environmentally friendly agriculture. This paper reviews the underlying mechanisms that are confidently linked with plant–AMF interaction in alleviating drought stress, constructing emphasis on phytohormones and signaling molecules and their interaction with biochemical, and physiological processes to maintain the homeostasis of nutrient and water cycling and plant growth performance. Likewise, the paper will analyze how the AMF symbiosis helps the plant to overcome the deleterious effects of stress is also evaluated. Finally, we review how interactions between various signaling mechanisms governed by AMF symbiosis modulate different physiological responses to improve drought tolerance. Understanding the AMF-mediated mechanisms that are important for regulating the establishment of the mycorrhizal association and the plant protective responses towards unfavorable conditions will open new approaches to exploit AMF as a bioprotective tool against drought.


2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (23) ◽  
pp. 8064-8077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Li ◽  
Yumin Zhang ◽  
Ying Liu ◽  
Xudong Li ◽  
Guanglong Hao ◽  
...  

Raffinose and its precursor galactinol accumulate in plant leaves during abiotic stress. RAFFINOSE SYNTHASE (RAFS) catalyzes raffinose formation by transferring a galactosyl group of galactinol to sucrose. However, whether RAFS contributes to plant drought tolerance and, if so, by what mechanism remains unclear. In this study, we report that expression of RAFS from maize (or corn, Zea mays) (ZmRAFS) is induced by drought, heat, cold, and salinity stresses. We found that zmrafs mutant maize plants completely lack raffinose and hyper-accumulate galactinol and are more sensitive to drought stress than the corresponding null-segregant (NS) plants. This indicated that ZmRAFS and its product raffinose contribute to plant drought tolerance. ZmRAFS overexpression in Arabidopsis enhanced drought stress tolerance by increasing myo-inositol levels via ZmRAFS-mediated galactinol hydrolysis in the leaves due to sucrose insufficiency in leaf cells and also enhanced raffinose synthesis in the seeds. Supplementation of sucrose to detached leaves converted ZmRAFS from hydrolyzing galactinol to synthesizing raffinose. Taken together, we demonstrate that ZmRAFS enhances plant drought tolerance through either raffinose synthesis or galactinol hydrolysis, depending on sucrose availability in plant cells. These results provide new avenues to improve plant drought stress tolerance through manipulation of the raffinose anabolic pathway.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (13) ◽  
pp. 3137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmed Sallam ◽  
Ahmad M. Alqudah ◽  
Mona F. A. Dawood ◽  
P. Stephen Baenziger ◽  
Andreas Börner

Climate change is a major threat to most of the agricultural crops grown in tropical and sub-tropical areas globally. Drought stress is one of the consequences of climate change that has a negative impact on crop growth and yield. In the past, many simulation models were proposed to predict climate change and drought occurrences, and it is extremely important to improve essential crops to meet the challenges of drought stress which limits crop productivity and production. Wheat and barley are among the most common and widely used crops due to their economic and social values. Many parts of the world depend on these two crops for food and feed, and both crops are vulnerable to drought stress. Improving drought stress tolerance is a very challenging task for wheat and barley researchers and more research is needed to better understand this stress. The progress made in understanding drought tolerance is due to advances in three main research areas: physiology, breeding, and genetic research. The physiology research focused on the physiological and biochemical metabolic pathways that plants use when exposed to drought stress. New wheat and barley genotypes having a high degree of drought tolerance are produced through breeding by making crosses from promising drought-tolerant genotypes and selecting among their progeny. Also, identifying genes contributing to drought tolerance is very important. Previous studies showed that drought tolerance is a polygenic trait and genetic constitution will help to dissect the gene network(s) controlling drought tolerance. This review explores the recent advances in these three research areas to improve drought tolerance in wheat and barley.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document