Wheat constitutes pivotal position for ensuring food and nutritional security; however, rapidly rising soil and water salinity pose a serious threat to its production globally. Salinity stress negatively affects the growth and development of wheat leading to diminished grain yield and quality. Wheat plants utilize a range of physiological biochemical and molecular mechanisms to adapt under salinity stress at the cell, tissue as well as whole plant levels to optimize the growth, and yield by off-setting the adverse effects of saline environment. Recently, various adaptation and management strategies have been developed to reduce the deleterious effects of salinity stress to maximize the production and nutritional quality of wheat. This review emphasizes and synthesizes the deleterious effects of salinity stress on wheat yield and quality along with highlighting the adaptation and mitigation strategies for sustainable wheat production to ensure food security of skyrocketing population under changing climate.

This study was conducted in the laboratory and screenhouse to determine the effects of temperature, light, osmotic stress, salt stress, burial depth, use of crop residues as mulch, depth of flooding, and use of POST herbicides on the emergence, survival, and growth of doveweed. In the light/dark regime, germination was higher at alternating day/night temperatures of 35/25 C (95%) than at 30/20 C (72%), and no germination occurred at 25/15 C. Light strongly influenced germination (95%) and dark completely inhibited germination. No germination occurred at an osmotic potential of −0.8 MPa and a salt concentration of 150 mM and above. The highest germination (91%) was observed from the seeds sown on the soil surface and emergence decreased by 78, 86, and 92% when burial depths were increased to 0.5, 1, and 2 cm, respectively. No seedlings emerged from seeds buried at depths of more than 2 cm. The use of rice residues as mulch significantly reduced the emergence and growth of doveweed seedlings. The amount of residue required to suppress 50% of the maximum biomass was 2.5 t ha−1. Flooding had a more pronounced effect on seedling biomass than seedling emergence. Biomass was reduced by 78, 92, and 96% when flooding depths increased from 0 to 2, 4, and 6 cm, respectively, for the seeds placed on the soil surface, whereas for the seeds buried at 0.5 cm, these values were 78, 100, and 100%. Bentazon (100 g ha−1) and bispyribac-sodium (30 g ha−1) provided 100% control of doveweed when applied at the three-leaf stage. Doveweed control was less than 31% with glyphosate rates up to 2,000 g ha−1. The application of 2,4-D (500 g ha−1) provided 100% control of doveweed even when applied at the seven-leaf stage. The information from this study could help in developing more sustainable and effective integrated weed management strategies for the control of this weed and weeds with similar response in dry-seeded rice systems.

Plant growth regulators are naturally biosynthesized chemicals in plants that influence physiological processes. Their synthetic analogous trigger numerous biochemical and physiological processes involved in the growth and development of plants. Nowadays, due to changing climatic scenario, numerous biotic and abiotic stresses hamper seed germination, seedling growth, and plant development leading to a decline in biological and economic yields. However, plant growth regulators (PGRs) can potentially play a fundamental role in regulating plant responses to various abiotic stresses and hence, contribute to plant adaptation under adverse environments. The major effects of abiotic stresses are growth and yield disturbance, and both these effects are directly overseen by the PGRs. Different types of PGRs such as abscisic acid (ABA), salicylic acid (SA), ethylene (ET), and jasmonates (JAs) are connected to boosting the response of plants to multiple stresses. In contrast, PGRs including cytokinins (CKs), gibberellins (GAs), auxin, and relatively novel PGRs such as strigolactones (SLs), and brassinosteroids (BRs) are involved in plant growth and development under normal and stressful environmental conditions. Besides, polyamines and nitric oxide (NO), although not considered as phytohormones, have been included in the current review due to their involvement in the regulation of several plant processes and stress responses. These PGRs are crucial for regulating stress adaptation through the modulates physiological, biochemical, and molecular processes and activation of the defense system, upregulating of transcript levels, transcription factors, metabolism genes, and stress proteins at cellular levels. The current review presents an acumen of the recent progress made on different PGRs to improve plant tolerance to abiotic stress such as heat, drought, salinity, and flood. Moreover, it highlights the research gaps on underlying mechanisms of PGRs biosynthesis under stressed conditions and their potential roles in imparting tolerance against adverse effects of suboptimal growth conditions.

Phytohormones (PHs) play crucial role in regulation of various physiological and biochemical processes that govern plant growth and yield under optimal and stress conditions. The interaction of these PHs is crucial for plant survival under stressful environments as they trigger signaling pathways. Hormonal cross regulation initiate a cascade of reactions which finely tune the physiological processes in plant architecture that help plant to grow under suboptimal growth conditions. Recently, various studies have highlighted the role of PHs such as abscisic acid, salicylic acid, ethylene, and jasmonates in the plant responses toward environmental stresses. The involvement of cytokinins, gibberellins, auxin, and relatively novel PHs such as strigolactones and brassinosteroids in plant growth and development has been documented under normal and stress conditions. The recent identification of the first plant melatonin receptor opened the door to this regulatory molecule being considered a new plant hormone. However, polyamines, which are not considered PHs, have been included in this chapter. Various microbes produce and secrete hormones which helped the plants in nutrient uptake such as N, P, and Fe. Exogenous use of such microbes help plants in correcting nutrient deficiency under abiotic stresses. This chapter focused on the recent developments in the knowledge related to PHs and their involvement in abiotic stresses of anticipation, signaling, cross-talk, and activation of response mechanisms. In view of role of hormones and capability of microbes in producing hormones, we propose the use of hormones and microbes as potential strategy for crop stress management.