Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important guide to recognizing, assessing and addressing the broad range of environmental factors that can inhibit rice yield. As a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, and in light of projected population growth, improving and increasing rice yield is imperative. This book presents current research on abiotic stresses including extreme temperature variance, drought, hypoxia, salinity, heavy metal, nutrient deficiency and toxicity stresses. Going further, it identifies a variety of approaches to alleviate the damaging effects and improving the stress tolerance of rice. Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important reference for those ensuring optimal yields from this globally important food crop. - Covers aspects of abiotic stress, from research, history, practical field problems faced by rice, and the possible remedies to the adverse effects of abiotic stresses - Provides practical insights into a wide range of management and crop improvement practices - Presents a valuable, single-volume sourcebook for rice scientists dealing with agronomy, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology

The latest update on improving crop resistance to abiotic stress using the advanced key methods of proteomics, genomics and metabolomics. The wellbalanced international mix of contributors from industry and academia cover work carried out on individual crop plants, while also including studies of model organisms that can then be applied to specific crop plants

Changes in natural ecosystems can affect biodiversity on a global scale, which in turn affects global food production. Climate change develops under different environmental conditions such as high CO2 concentration, ultraviolet radiation, temperature, salinity, rainfall intensity, etc., causing an increase in the growth of new weeds and pathogens. All these factors alone and in complex can reduce growth, complicate photosynthesis, and reduce the physiological and biochemical responses of plants. On the other hand, studies in recent years have shown that the development of a dual strategy of breeding for stress tolerance and introducing stress tolerant plants into production systems to increase their resistance to various stresses is particularly relevant today. Therefore, research related to physiological, biochemical and molecular responses of plants is of paramount importance to authorize the effects of climate-induced stresses and the likely mechanisms of resistance and/or factors mitigating these stresses in crop plants. Climate change is a dynamic, multifaceted system of modifications to environmental conditions that include abiotic and biotic factors in the world. Therefore, rapid development of studies on the integration between physiological, biochemical and molecular responses that can admit a systems analysis of plants is important, and knowledge of molecular mechanisms will provide breeding programs with relevance to obtaining cultivars tolerant to abiotic stresses with increased productivity. Under this research topic, reviews, new methods and scientific articles will be selected for publication based on applications to agriculture under climate change. This research topic will cover the following themes: - Adaptive capacity of plants to withstand climate change - The role of biodiversity in sustainable agriculture - Manipulation of microclimate for plant productivity - Role of plant extracts in plant stress mitigation - Phytoremediation and bioremediation factors for crop improvement - Perspective of underutilized crops under climate change - Contribution of plant secondary metabolism to stress tolerance - Plant tissue culture and crop improvement - The role of nanotechnology for climate-resilient agriculture - Pre-breeding and germplasm characterization for the development of agronomically relevant crop traits

This book presents abiotic stresses that cause crop damage in the range of 6-20%. Understanding the interaction of crop plants to the abiotic stresses caused by heat, cold, drought, flooding, submergence, salinity, acidity, etc., is important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding, and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in cereal crops is imperative for addressing FPNEE (food, health, nutrition, energy, and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing has facilitated precise information about the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining, and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to abiotic stresses. The nine chapters each dedicated to a cereal crop in this volume are deliberate on different types of abiotic stresses and their effects on and interaction with crop plants; enumerate on the available genetic diversity with regard to abiotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate on the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; are brief on the classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; elucidate on the success stories of genetic engineering for developing abiotic stress-resistant crop varieties; discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; enunciate on different emerging genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery, and gene pyramiding for developing adaptive crop varieties with higher quantity and quality, and also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating abiotic stress-resistant crops.

Presents the latest knowledge of improving the stress tolerance, yield, and quality of rice crops One of the most important cereal crops, rice provides food to more than half of the world population. Various abiotic stresses—currently impacting an estimated 60% of crop yields—are projected to increase in severity and frequency due to climate change. In light of the threat of global food grain insecurity, interest in molecular rice breeding has intensified in recent years. Progress has been made, but there remains an urgent need to develop stress-tolerant, bio-fortified rice varieties that provide consistent and high-quality yields under both stress and non-stress conditions. Molecular Breeding for Rice Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Nutritional Quality is the first book to provide comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of this critical topic, containing the physiological, biochemical, and molecular information required to develop effective engineering strategies for enhancing rice yield. Authoritative and in-depth chapters examine the molecular and genetic bases of abiotic stress tolerance, discuss yield and quality improvement of rice, and explore new approaches to better utilize natural resources through modern breeding. Topics Include rice adaptation to climate change, enriching rice yields under low phosphorus and light intensity, increasing iron, zinc, vitamin and antioxidant content, and improving tolerance to salinity, drought, heat, cold, submergence, heavy metals and Ultraviolet-B radiation. This important resource: Contains the latest scientific information on a wide range of topics central to molecular breeding for rice Provides timely coverage molecular breeding for improving abiotic stress tolerance, bioavailability of essential micronutrients, and crop productivity through biotechnological methods Features detailed chapters written by internationally-recognized experts in the field Discusses recent progress and future directions in molecular breeding strategies and research Molecular Breeding for Rice Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Nutritional Quality is required reading for rice researchers, agriculturists, and agribusiness professionals, and the ideal text for instructors and students in molecular plant breeding, abiotic stress tolerance, environmental science, and plant physiology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and biotechnology.

Anthropogenic activities have aggravated the effects of global climate change on ecosystems. Plants, because of their inability to escape from an adverse environment, suffer to a great extent from stresses, which can negatively impact their growth and development. Global warming is increasingly causing extreme climatic situations such as very high or low temperatures, drought and flooding events, hailstorms, wildfires, extreme precipitation events, and the reduction of fertile soil through desertification and salinization. In addition, warmer temperatures and higher humidity related with the climate change can also increase pest and disease pressure on plants by altering the geographic range, population size, and timing of pest and disease outbreaks. Taken together abiotic stress related with climate change as drought or extreme temperature can exacerbate the spread and severity of various diseases associated with biotic stress increasing the vulnerability of plants to pathogens (some examples include insects, fungi, bacteria or viruses).

Plants often encounter abiotic stresses including drought, salinity, flooding, high/low temperatures, and metal toxicity, among others. The majority of these stresses occur simultaneously and thus limit crop production. Therefore, the need of the hour is to improve the abiotic stresses tolerance of crop plants by integrating physiology, omics, and modern breeding approaches. This book covers various aspects including (1) abiotic stress responses in plants and progress made so far in the allied areas for trait improvements, (2) integrates knowledge gained from basic physiology to advanced omics tools to assist new breeding technologies, and (3) discusses key genes, proteins, and metabolites or pathways for developing new crop varieties with improved tolerance traits.