“…Plant drought resistance is associated with drought escape via a short life cycle or developmental flexibility (early germination, faster plant growth, early flowering, and maturity; Manavalan et al 2009), drought avoidance as a means of enhanced water uptake, reduced water loss, leaf rolling, reduced leaf area, decline in leaf growth, and adjustment in root growth (Tardieu & Parent 2017). More importantly, photosynthesis is a key physiological process in plants, diversely affected by drought stress (Bano et al 2021;Kaur et al 2021). The mechanism underlying photosynthesis decline in response to drought stress is owed to (1) a reduction in chlorophyll biosynthesis, (2) stomatal and nonstomatal limitations, (3) a decrease in mesophyll conductance to CO 2 , (4) an increase in accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that rapidly react with the cellular lipids and proteins, and (5) inhibitions of enzymatic activities involved in carboxylation processes (Flexas et al 2004;Farooq et al 2009;Flexas et al 2009).…”