Abiotic Stress Signaling in Plants: Functional Genomic Intervention


Book Description

Abiotic stresses such as high temperature, low-temperature, drought and salinity limit crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses is essential for rational engineering of crop plants. In Arabidopsis, the signal transduction pathways for abiotic stresses, light, several phytohormones and pathogenesis have been elucidated. A significant portion of plant genomes (Arabidopsis and rice were mostly studied) encodes for proteins involves in signaling such as receptor, sensors, kinases, phosphatases, transcription factors and transporters/channels. Despite decades of physiological and molecular effort, knowledge pertaining to how plants sense and transduce low and high temperature, low-water availability (drought), water-submergence, microgravity and salinity signals is still a major question for plant biologist. One major constraint hampering our understanding of these signal transduction processes in plants has been the lack or slow pace of application of molecular genomic and genetics knowledge in the form of gene function. In the post-genomic era, one of the major challenges is investigation and understanding of multiple genes and gene families regulating a particular physiological and developmental aspect of plant life cycle. One of the important physiological processes is regulation of stress response, which leads to adaptation or adjustment in response to adverse stimuli. With the holistic understanding of the signaling pathways involving not only one gene family but multiple genes or gene families, plant biologist can lay a foundation for designing and generating future crops, which can withstand the higher degree of environmental stresses (especially abiotic stresses, which are the major cause of crop loss throughout the world) without losing crop yield and productivity. Therefore, in this e-Book, we intend to incorporate the contribution from leading plant biologists to elucidate several aspects of stress signaling by functional genomics approaches.




Abiotic Stress: Molecular Genetics and Genomics


Book Description

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 Stress Response in Plants


Book Description

Understanding abiotic stress responses in plants is critical for the development of new varieties of crops, which are better adapted to harsh climate conditions. The new book by the well-known editor team Narendra Tuteja and Sarvajeet Gill provides a comprehensive overview on the molecular basis of plant responses to external stress like drought or heavy metals, to aid in the engineering of stress resistant crops. After a general introduction into the topic, the following sections deal with specific signaling pathways mediating plant stress response. The last part covers translational plant physiology, describing several examples of the development of more stress-resistant crop varieties.




Stress Signaling in Plants: Genomics and Proteomics Perspective, Volume 1


Book Description

Plant diseases, extreme weather caused by climate change, drought and an increase in metals in soil are amongst the major limiting factors of crop production worldwide. They devastate not only food supply but also the economy of a nation. Keeping in view of the global food scarcity, there is, an urgent need to develop crop plants with increased stress tolerance so as to meet the global food demands and to preserve the quality of our planet. In order to do this, it is necessary to understand how plants react and adapt to stress from the genomic and proteomic perspective. Plants adapt to stress conditions by activation of cascades of molecular mechanisms, which result in alterations in gene expression and synthesis of protective proteins/compounds. From the perception of the stimulus to transduction of the signal, followed by an appropriate response, the plants employ a complex network of primary and secondary messenger molecules. Cell signaling is the component of a complex system of communication that directs basic cellular activities and synchronizes cell actions. Cells exercise a large number of noticeably distinct signaling pathways to regulate their activity. In order to contend with different environmental adversities plants have developed a series of mechanisms at the physiological, cellular and molecular level. This two volume set takes an in-depth look at the Stress Signaling in Plants from a uniquely genomic and proteomics perspective. Stress Signaling in Plants offers a comprehensive treatise on the Chapter, covering all of the signaling pathways and mechanisms that have been researched so far. Each chapter provides in-depth explanation of what we currently know of a particular aspect of stress signaling and where we are headed. All authors have currently agreed and abstracts have been complied for the first volume, due out midway through 2012. We aim to have the second volume out at the beginning of 2013.​




Physiology and Molecular Biology of Stress Tolerance in Plants


Book Description

Biologists worldwide now speak the scientific language of molecular biology and use the same molecular tools. Interest is growing in the molecular biology of abiotic stress tolerance and modes of installing better tolerant mechanisms in crop plants. Current studies make plants capable of sustaining their yields even under stressful conditions. Further, this information may form the basis for its application in biotechnology and bioinformatics.




Epigenetics in Plants of Agronomic Importance: Fundamentals and Applications


Book Description

Over the past decades, chromatin remodelling has emerged as an important regulator of gene expression and plant defense. This book provides a detailed understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms involved in plants of agronomic importance. The information presented here is significant because it is expected to provide the knowledge needed to develop in the future treatments to manipulate and selectively activate/inhibit proteins and metabolic pathways to counter pathogens, to treat important diseases and to increase crop productivity. New approaches of this kind and the development of new technologies will certainly increase our knowledge of currently known post-translational modifications and facilitate the understanding of their roles in, for example, host-pathogen interactions and crop productivity. Furthermore, we provide important insight on how the plant epigenome changes in response to developmental or environmental stimuli, how chromatin modifications are established and maintained, to which degree they are used throughout the genome, and how chromatin modifications influence each another.




Genetic Enhancement of Crops for Tolerance to Abiotic Stress: Mechanisms and Approaches, Vol. I


Book Description

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




Transcription Factors for Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants


Book Description

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




Plant Genetics and Molecular Biology


Book Description

This book reviews the latest advances in multiple fields of plant biotechnology and the opportunities that plant genetics, genomics and molecular biology have offered for agriculture improvement. Advanced technologies can dramatically enhance our capacity in understanding the molecular basis of traits and utilizing the available resources for accelerated development of high yielding, nutritious, input-use efficient and climate-smart crop varieties. In this book, readers will discover the significant advances in plant genetics, structural and functional genomics, trait and gene discovery, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, epigenomics, nanotechnology and analytical & decision support tools in breeding. This book appeals to researchers, academics and other stakeholders of global agriculture.