Plant growth-regulating molecules as thermoprotectants: functional relevance and prospects for improving heat tolerance in food crops

Abstract

Among various abiotic stresses, heat stress is one of the most damaging, threatening plant productivity and survival all over the world. Warmer temperatures due to climatic anomalies above optimum growing temperatures have detrimental impacts on crop yield potential as well as plant distribution patterns. Heat stress affects overall plant metabolism in terms of physiology, biochemistry, and gene expression. Membrane damage, protein degradation, enzyme inactivation, and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species are some of the harmful effects of heat stress that cause injury to various cellular compartments. Although plants are equipped with various defense strategies to counteract these adversities, their defensive means are not sufficient to defend against the ever-rising temperatures. Hence, substantial yield losses have been observed in all crop species under heat stress. Here, we describe the involvement of various plant growth-regulators (PGRs) (hormones, polyamines, osmoprotectants, antioxidants, and other signaling molecules) in thermotolerance, through diverse cellular mechanisms that protect cells under heat stress. Several studies involving the exogenous application of PGRs to heat-stressed plants have demonstrated their role in imparting tolerance, suggesting the strong potential of these molecules in improving the performance of food crops grown under high temperature.

Identification and Characterization of Contrasting Genotypes/Cultivars for Developing Heat Tolerance in Agricultural Crops: Current Status and Prospects

“…Due to their low molecular weight, these molecules can buffer the cellular redox potential under heat stress. Phytohormones, such as salicylic acid, abscisic acid, brassinosteroids, and polyamines, also play a significant role in providing thermotolerance to plants (Ahammed and Yu, 2016;Sharma et al, 2020).…”

“…Heat sensitivity is linked to the expression of several cellular molecules, including antioxidants (Wilson et al, 2014), HSPs (Xu et al, 2011) osmolytes (Bita and Gerats, 2013), and phytohormones (Sharma et al, 2020). These molecules assist cells to adapt, repair, and survive in adverse temperature environments; hence, measuring the extent of their expression in contrasting genotypes grown under heat stress might reveal mechanisms regulating the heat response.…”

Consequences and Mitigation Strategies of Heat Stress for Sustainability of Soybean (Glycine maxL. Merr.) Production under the Changing Climate

“…Recently, global warming has multiplied the incidence of environmental stress leading to a serious decline in crop yield [90]. One of the ways to deal with adverse effects of HT stress may involve exploring some molecules that have the potential to protect the plants from the harmful effects of high temperature [91]. Previous studies report that exogenous proline application improves the tolerance against different types of abiotic stresses such as osmotic stress, but not in HT stress.…”

Gene Set Subtraction Reveals 633 Candidate Genes for Bamboo Culm Wall Thickening

“…The development of molecular biology assessment techniques has resulted in a new field of plant research. The use of molecular biology to study a particular trait in plants has gained increasing interest [8][9][10][11]. By constructing large-scale artificial or natural plant populations, assisted by high-throughput sequencing technology, it is possible to discover regulatory genes and mechanisms for specific traits [12][13][14].…”