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Drought Tolerance in Cereal Grain Crops Under Changing Climate

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Quantification of Climate Variability, Adaptation and Mitigation for Agricultural Sustainability

Abstract

Earth life is greatly dependent on function and properties of water. A major threat to agricultural production is drought. Drought is a multidimensional stress and world spread problem that cause substantial losses by influencing the yield and production seriously. Tolerance to drought is a principal target for molecular strategies to crop enhancement. The plants ability to resist drought conditions is important for agricultural production globally. Current progress in responses to drought has been made in our comprehending of signal transduction, gene expression and transcriptional regulation in plants. Plants have developed a diverse variety of drought resistance mechanisms in front of water limiting conditions at physiological, metabolic and molecular level. Water uptake and development of healthier root, WUE, osmotic adjustment, and mineral nutrients also have important consequences on adaptation to drought. This chapter is organized around the concept of “drought tolerance in rice and maize crops”. Some innovative tactics are discussed. This chapter summarizes different aspects of crop breeding for drought tolerance and analyses how conventional breeding, genetics, biotechnology tools, micro arrays, MAS, QTL, bioinformatics and transgenic crops as well as mineral nutrients, plant growth regulations can participate to advancing the emancipation of drought-resistant rice and maize cultivars. We foresee the functional and genetic of drought resistance based on such premises. Novel opportunities for tailoring new genotypes will be generated ‘by design’. Harnessing the genomics-assisted breeding’s potential will need an integrated knowledge of physiological and molecular processes and a multidisciplinary approach influencing drought tolerance.

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Abbreviations

WHO:

World health organization

ROS:

Reactive oxygen specie

IAA:

Indole-3-Acetic Acid

GA3 :

Gibberellic Acid

BL:

Brassinolide

IRRI:

The International Rice Research Institute

CIMMYT:

The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

IITA:

International Institute for Tropical Agriculture

SSA:

Sub-Saharan Africa

PGRs:

Plant growth regulators

CIAT:

The International Center for Tropical Agriculture

ABA:

Abscisic acid

CO2 :

Carbon dioxide

GB:

Glycine betaine

DI:

Deficit irrigation

WUE:

Water-use efficiency

EUW:

Effective use of water

RNA:

Ribonucleic Acid

DNA:

Deoxyribonucleic Acid

OA:

Osmotic adjustment

ATP:

Adenosine triphosphate

QTL:

Quantitative trait loci

eQTL:

Expression quantitative trait loci

SNP:

Single nucleotide polymorphism

MAS:

Marker-assisted selection

DPE:

Drought-prone environments

TE:

Transpiration efficiency

HI:

Harvest index

WU:

Water uptake

IRFGC:

International Rice Functional Genomics Consortium

ICIS:

International Crop Information System

GCP:

Generation Challenge Program

TF:

Transcription factors

GST:

Glutathione-S-transferases

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioinformatics, International Islamic University Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Zohra Aslam & Jabar Zaman Khan Khattak

  2. Department of Agronomy, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

    Mukhtar Ahmed

  3. Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA

    Mukhtar Ahmed

Authors
  1. Zohra Aslam
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  2. Jabar Zaman Khan Khattak
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  3. Mukhtar Ahmed
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Correspondence to Zohra Aslam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University, PULLMAN, Washington, USA

    Mukhtar Ahmed

  2. Biological System Engineering, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA

    Claudio O. Stockle

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Aslam, Z., Khattak, J.Z.K., Ahmed, M. (2017). Drought Tolerance in Cereal Grain Crops Under Changing Climate. In: Ahmed, M., Stockle, C. (eds) Quantification of Climate Variability, Adaptation and Mitigation for Agricultural Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32059-5_9

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