Functional Genomics of Drought Tolerance in Crops: Engineering Transcriptional Regulators and Pathways

Abstract

Drought stress is a major limitation for crop productivity worldwide, especially in irrigated agriculture. One solution to this problem is the use of cultivars that are tolerant to drought. However, conventional breeding to improve drought tolerance has proven difficult because drought and dehydration tolerance in plants are not fully understood. As a result of research during the past two decades, networks of genes participating in plant adaptations to drought stress have been identified. In this chapter, I present this research progress and indicate the use of specific genes to engineer crops for improved drought tolerance.