Plant stresses are serious threats to the sustainability of crop yields accounting for more crop productivity losses than any other factor in rainfed agriculture. Post-harvest losses mean surplus crops do not reach market, affecting the livelihoods of farming families, and too often these families are left with no other option than to eat contaminated stored food. These constraints impact the food security of these farming families as well as the communities and countries in which they live. This book is the demonstration of a clear synergistic effect of stresses, an effect that was unexpectedly as important as either stress applied alone. This book will add to our current knowledge of abiotic stress response in plants and will provide the groundwork necessary to build future strategies for crop enhancement. The fundamental principles that underpin all biotechnology are explained and a full range of examples discussed to show how these principles are applied; from starting substrate to final product. It will be beneficial to both plant breeders and molecular biologists, because it combines the topics of physiology, tolerance genes, and breeding methods. When these topics are presented together, it is easy to compare all aspects of tolerance mechanisms and breeding methods for abiotic stresses. These comparisons are useful to understand which pathways or which genes are important for rendering more tolerance to a certain abiotic stress, and to bring forward new ideas for improving the tolerance. Features •Cover both plant biotic and abiotic stresses •Important factors in managing crops for water stress conditions •Substantially increase the sustainable productivity of smallholder farmers in developing countries •Genetic and biochemical approaches – if those approaches constitute a substantial improvement on current practices.

Plants under abiotic stress are those suffering from drought, extreme temperatures, flood and other natural—but non-living—factors. Abiotic stress is responsible for reduced yields in several major crops, and climate change is focusing research in this area. To minimize cellular damage cause by such stresses, plants have evolved complex, well-coordinated adaptive responses that operate at the transcriptional level. Understanding these processes is key to manipulating plant performance to withstand stress. This book deals with the role of gene silencing in the adaptation of plants to these stresses, and documents the molecular regulatory systems for the abiotic response.

This fully updated new edition explores new techniques for studying plant stress. This includes novel methodologies such as MeRIP-seq for identifying changes in m6A profiles, isolation of stress granules, and additional methodologies such as MNase–seq for identifying nucleosome occupancy, alternative splicing analysis, identifying proteins that interact with long noncoding RNAs, untargeted metabolomics, ROS and NO measurements, priming-related protocols, growth-promoting bacteria isolation and functional characterization, as well as isolating mutants for stress-regulated genes using CRISPR technology. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters feature introductions to their respective topics, lists of the necessary materials and reagents, step-by-step and readily reproducible protocols, and tips on troubleshooting and avoiding known pitfalls. Authoritative and up-to-date, Plant Stress Tolerance: Methods and Protocols, Third Edition provides a wide range of protocols catering to the needs of plant physiologists, biochemists, and molecular biologists interested in probing this vital area of study.

This book deals with an array of topics in the broad area of biotic stress responses in plants focusing “problems and their management” by selecting some of the widely investigated themes. Such as, Major insect-pest of cereal crops in India and their management, Biotic stresses of major pulse crops and their management strategies, Insect pest of oilseed crops and their management, Biotic stresses of vegetable crops & their management, Insect pests infesting major vegetable crops and their management strategies, Fruit Crops Insect pests and their Biointensive Integrated Pest Management techniques, Mass Trapping of fruit flies using Methyl Eugenol based Traps, Organic means of combating biotic stresses in plants, Nematode problem in pulses and their management, and approaches in pest management of stored grain pests. This book is useful for under-graduate and post-graduate students in Entomology, Plant Pathology, Agronomy, Horticulture, other cognate disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences and other research workers. We fervently believe that this book will provide good information and understanding of biotic stress problems and their management in plants.

Plants have to manage a series of environmental stresses throughout their entire lifespan. Among these, abiotic stress is the most detrimental; one that is responsible for nearly 50% of crop yield reduction and appears to be a potential threat to global food security in coming decades. Plant growth and development reduces drastically due to adverse effects of abiotic stresses. It has been estimated that crop can exhibit only 30% of their genetic potentiality under abiotic stress condition. So, this is a fundamental need to understand the stress responses to facilitate breeders to develop stress resistant and stress tolerant cultivars along with good management practices to withstand abiotic stresses. Also, a holistic approach to understanding the molecular and biochemical interactions of plants is important to implement the knowledge of resistance mechanisms under abiotic stresses. Agronomic practices like selecting cultivars that is tolerant to wide range of climatic condition, planting date, irrigation scheduling, fertilizer management could be some of the effective short-term adaptive tools to fight against abiotic stresses. In addition, “system biology” and “omics approaches” in recent studies offer a long-term opportunity at the molecular level in dealing with abiotic stresses. The genetic approach, for example, selection and identification of major conditioning genes by linkage mapping and quantitative trait loci (QTL), production of mutant genes and transgenic introduction of novel genes, has imparted some tolerant characteristics in crop varieties from their wild ancestors. Recently research has revealed the interactions between micro-RNAs (miRNAs) and plant stress responses exposed to salinity, freezing stress and dehydration. Accordingly transgenic approaches to generate stress-tolerant plant are one of the most interesting researches to date. This book presents the recent development of agronomic and molecular approaches in conferring plant abiotic stress tolerance in an organized way. The present volume will be of great interest among research students and teaching community, and can also be used as reference material by professional researchers.

This book deals with an array of topics in the broad area of abiotic stress responses in plants focusing “problems and their management” by selecting some of the widely investigated themes. Such as, Cell signalling in Plants during abiotic and biotic stress, Salinity stress induced metabolic changes and its management, High temperature stress: responses, mechanism and management, Low temperature stress induced changes in plants and their management, Biotechnological approaches to improve abiotic stress tolerance, Nutritional poverty in wheat under abiotic stress scenario, Strategies for improving soil health under current climate change scenario, Abiotic stress management in Pulse crops, Mitigation strategies of abiotic stress in fruit crops, Impacts of abiotic stress and possible management option in vegetable crops, and Abiotic stress: impact and management in ornamental crops. This book is useful for under-graduate and post-graduate students in Plant Physiology, Biochemistry, agronomy, horticulture, Botany, Environmental sciences and other cognate disciplines of agriculture and allied sciences and other research workers. We fervently believe that this book will provide good information and understanding of abiotic stress problems and their management in plants. Note: T& F does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. This title is co-published with NIPA.

Plants growing in the natural environment battle with a variety of biotic (pathogens infection) and abiotic (salinity, drought, heat and cold stresses etc.) stresses. These physiological stresses drastically affect plant growth and productivity under field conditions. These challenges are likely to grow as a consequences of global climate change and pose a threat to the food security. Therefore, acquaintance with underlying signalling pathways, physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms in plants and the role of beneficial soil microorganisms in plant’s stress tolerance are pivotal for sustainable crop production. This volume written by the experts in the stress physiology and covers latest research on plant’s tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. It elaborates on the potential of plant-microbe interactions to avoid the damage caused by these stresses. With comprehensive information on theoretical, technical and experimental aspects of plant stress biology, this extensive volume is a valuable resource for researchers, academician and students in the broad field of plant stress biology, physiology, microbiology, environmental and agricultural science.