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With devastating increase in population there is a great necessity to increase crop productivity of staple crops but the productivity is greatly affected by various abiotic stress factors such as drought, salinity. An attempt has been made a brief account on abiotic stress resistance of major cereal crops viz. In spite of good successes obtained on physiological and use molecular biology, the benefits of this high cost technology are beyond the reach of developing countries. This review discusses several morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms of major cereal crops related to the adaptation of these crop to abiotic stress factors. It discusses the effect of abiotic stresses on physiological processes such as flowering, grain filling and maturation and plant metabolisms viz. photosynthesis, enzyme activity, mineral nutrition, and respiration. Though significant progress has been attained on the physiological, biochemical basis of resistance to abiotic stress factors, very little progress has been achieved to increase productivity under sustainable agriculture. Therefore, there is a great necessity of inter-disciplinary research to address this issue and to evolve efficient technology and its transfer to the farmers' fields.

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The glossy trait in I sorghum: its characteristics and significance in crop improvement. Field Crops Res., 9: 279-289. Sorghum seedlings can be morphologically glossy or nonglossy: seedlings with dark green leaves (normal) are nonglossy, and seedlings with light yellow green and shining leaf surfaces are glossy. A systematic study of the world sorghum germplasm collection indicated a low frequency of accessions with the glossy trait (only 495 of 17 536 germplasm accessions screened). A large proportion (84%) of the glossy lines were of Indian origin but some were from elsewhere (Nigeria,

The shootfly (Atherigona soceata Rond.) is a major seedling pest of sorghum in Asia and Africa. To determine whether the presence of nonglandular trichomes on the leaf lamina was associated with resistance to shootfly, trichomed, segregating, and trichomeless F2-derived lines in the F5 and F, from four trlchomed X trichomeless sorghum matings and their parents were studied at ICRISAT Center, Patancheru, India. Trichomed lines had significantly lower percentages of plants with shootfly eggs 18 days after emergence and of deadhearts (killed central shoot) at both 18 and 23 or more days after emergence. The ratio of the difference between the means of trichomed and trlchomdess lines for the percentage of deadhearts to the corresponding difference between the parents ranged from 0.16 to 0.92 and exceeded 0.32 in seven of nine comparisons. Thus, trichomes were clearly a major factor, but not the only factor, involved in resistance. Means of the parents and trichomed, segregating, and trichomeless offspring were regressed on four possible genetic models. The results indicated that at least two additional loci that interact with each other were involved in resistance. Trichome density was examined as a possible factor in resistance, but correlation of deadheart percentage with the density of trichomes was low and nonsignificant.

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