Harnessing phytohormone dynamics to fortify crop resilience against drought: a comprehensive review

Drought stress negatively impacts the productivity and yield of crops as it disrupts plant metabolism, leading to reduced growth and development. When plants experience drought stress, complex processes involving phytohormones and associated signal transduction pathways are triggered. Phytohormones play a crucial role in regulating various biological activities within plants, offering potential ways to enhance stress tolerance in economically important crops. The key phytohormones involved in the plant’s response to drought include abscisic acid, ethylene, cytokinins, auxins, salicylic acid, brassinosteroids, and signaling molecules like nitric oxide and transcription factors. This review emphasizes physiological, biochemical, and molecular plant responses to drought and the vital roles of phytohormones in coordinating these responses. It explores methods for modifying the hormonal pathways to alleviate the adverse effects of stress. It further examines the intricate interaction among different phytohormones during drought stress and their contributions towards strengthening plant resilience. It unveils how small non-coding RNA-mediated regulatory patterns can improve agronomic traits and reinforce plant tolerance to drought conditions, thus ensuring agricultural sustainability. Moreover, the review scrutinizes the role and contribution of omics and genomic editing technologies to enhanced drought tolerance.