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Durum wheat production in southern Australia is limited when water deficit occurs immediately before and during anthesis. This study was conducted to determine the effect of genotypic variation on various yield, morphological and physiological responses to pre-anthesis water-deficit stress by evaluating 20 durum wheat (Triticum turgidum L. ssp. durum) genotypes over 2 years of glasshouse experiments. Grain number was the major yield component that affected yield under pre-anthesis water-deficit stress. Genotypes with less yield reduction also had less reduction in chlorophyll content, relative water content and leaf water potential, suggesting that durum genotypes tolerant of water-deficit stress maintain a higher photosynthetic rate and leaf water status. Weak to moderate positive correlations of morphological traits, including plant height and fertile tiller number, with grain number and biomass make the evaluation of high-yielding genotypes in rainfed conditions possible. Morphological traits (such as plant height and tiller number) and physiological traits (such as chlorophyll content, relative water content and leaf water potential) could therefore be considered potential indicators for indirect selection of durum wheat with water-deficit stress tolerance under Mediterranean conditions.

The agricultural sector must produce resilient and climate-smart crops to meet the increasing needs of global food production. Recent advancements in elucidating the mechanistic basis of plant stress memory have provided new opportunities for crop improvement. Stress memory-coordinated changes at the organismal, cellular, and various omics levels prepare plants to be more responsive to reoccurring stress within or across generation(s). The exposure to a primary stress, or stress priming, can also elicit a beneficial impact when encountering a secondary abiotic or biotic stress through the convergence of synergistic signalling pathways, referred to as cross-stress tolerance. 'Rewired plants' with stress memory provide a new means to stimulate adaptable stress responses, safeguard crop reproduction, and engineer climate-smart crops for the future.Adapting to a changing climate: what does the future look like for crops?Crop production and quality are frequently challenged by environmental stresses, such as drought, heat, salinity, and frost. With global climate change, both the magnitude and the frequency of severe weather events, such as extreme temperatures and reduced precipitation, are predicted to increase [1]. Repeated and increasing occurrence of droughts, floods, heat waves, and frost events present a substantial threat to crop production and global food security, and may lead to fundamental changes in germplasm composition [2,3]. Given the ever-increasing world population, new effective plant breeding strategies to fortify stress resilience, enhance yield production, improve crop quality, and establish more adaptable and sustainable germplasm pools for future climate challenges are needed.