Molecular Techniques for the Improvement of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Abiotic stressesAbiotic stress present a severe threat to crop yield, causing more productivityProductivity losses than any other factorFactors in rainfed agricultureAgriculture. Traditional plant breedingPlant breeding approaches have shown limited success due to the complex nature of stress toleranceStress tolerance. To breed better-adapted varieties, it is crucial to integrate various integrated, research domains, including plant and cell physiology, molecular biology, geneticsGenetics, and breedingBreeding. Modern molecular biology tools can aid in identifying control mechanisms of abiotic stress toleranceAbiotic stress tolerance and engineer stressStress-tolerant crops by expressing specific stressStress-related genes. The physiological and molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress toleranceAbiotic stress tolerance have revealed several genes associated with stressStress adaptationAdaptation. Consequently, engineering stressStress-tolerant plants through the introgression of genes known to be involved in stressStress responseResponse and putative toleranceTolerance is a quicker path to improving crop varieties. Further, transcriptionTranscription factorsFactors have emerged as a new tool for controlling the expression of many stressStress-responsive genes. However, generating transgenicTransgenic cultivars is not only limited to the success of the transformation process but also the proper incorporation of stress toleranceStress tolerance. Overcoming major challenges, such as evaluating transgenic plantsTransgenic plant under field level stressStress conditions and understanding the physiological effect of the inserted genes at the whole plant level, is necessary. This chapter focuses on recent progress in using molecular breeding and transgenicTransgenic technologyTechnology to enhance abiotic stress toleranceAbiotic stress tolerance in plants.