Understanding Wheat Thermo-Tolerance Mechanisms for Enhanced Sustainable Production

The increasing rate of the global temperature is alarming, and is projected to be increased by up to 4.0 °C by the end of the twenty-first century. Temperature above the threshold causes heat stress which adversely affects most crops resulting in negative impact on world agricultural productivity. Consequently, heat stress has become a major hindrance to sustainable food production globally. Being a cold season crop, wheat crop is adversely influenced by heat stress conditions mostly at the stage of grain filling. This leads to shortening of grain filling stage resulting in reduced yield and poor grain quality. Heat stress affects plants in different ways, including causing changes in plant water relations, production of ROS and reduction in photosynthetic and metabolic activities. Understanding the molecular effects of heat stress on plants, as well as the use of natural genetic diversity to enhance thermo-tolerance should be considered as essential components of enhancing sustainability in crop production. In this chapter, we emphasize the damages of heat stress on crop production, with special focus on wheat, and the molecular and biotechnological interventions to safeguard its sustainable production under changing global climate.