Breeding Mechanisms for High Temperature Tolerance in Crop Plants

Abstract

Increase in global warming poses a severe threat on agricultural production thereby affecting food security. A drastic reduction in yield at elevated temperature is a resultant of several agro-morphological, physiological and biochemical modifications in plants. Heat tolerance is a complex mechanism under polygenic inheritance. Development of tolerant genotypes suited to heat extremes will be more advantageous to tropical and sub tropical regimes. A clear understanding on heat tolerance mechanism is needed for bringing trait based improvement in a crop species. Heat tolerance is often correlated with undesirable traits which limits the economic yield. In addition, high environmental interactions coupled with poor phenotyping techniques limit the progress of breeding programme. Recent advances in molecular technique led to precise introgression of thermo-tolerant genes into elite genetic background which has been reviewed briefly in this chapter.

Improvement of heat stress tolerance in soybean (Glycine max L), by using conventional and molecular tools

“…Breeding programs were carried out in heat stress areas that endorse crop selection for thermo-tolerant traits. Understanding the genetic and physiological-based heat tolerance mechanisms will help to develop heat tolerant cultivars suitable for sustainable growth under heat waves ( Shanmugavel et al, 2020 ). Alsajri et al (2019) screened 64 soybean cultivars using certain morphological and physiological traits for heat stress tolerance.…”

“…Under heat stress conditions, the plant adopts various mechanisms like short-term escape and avoidance, changed leaf orientation, membrane lipid functions, cooling, early maturity, and so on for survival ( Shanmugavel et al, 2020 ). The plant also shows different degrees of leaf rolling under heat stress ( Sarieva et al, 2010 ).…”

Plant Growth Promotion and Heat Stress Amelioration in Arabidopsis Inoculated with Paraburkholderia phytofirmans PsJN Rhizobacteria Quantified with the GrowScreen-Agar II Phenotyping Platform

“…Consequently, we require novel approaches to mitigate the plant stress response and meet the agricultural goals under elevated temperatures [ 21 ]. Several strategies are already in practice to develop heat-tolerant crop plants, including conventional crop breeding and genetic engineering approaches [ 22 , 23 ].…”