Alleviation of temperature stress by nutrient management in crop plants: a review

Abstract

Abstract The burgeoning population of world is expected to reach about 9-10 billion by the end of year 2050. Due to this rapidly increasing population, food productivity is de-creasing. Temperature induced stress is an important environmental factor that influ-ences the growth and development of plants. Both low and high temperatures affect plant growth and development at whole plant level, tissue and cell level and even at sub-cellular level. Temperature variation may affect morphology, anatomy, phenol-ogy and plant biochemistry at all levels of organization. Direct injuries due to high temperatures in plants include protein denaturation and aggregation, and increased fluidity of membrane lipids. Indirect or slower high temperature injuries include inactivation of enzymes in chloroplast and mitochondria, inhibition of protein syn-thesis, protein degradation and loss of membrane integrity. Low temperature stress during reproductive development induces flower abscission, pollen sterility, pollen tube distortion, ovule abortion and reduced fruit set, which ultimately lowers yield. A number of approaches are being used to alleviate the effect of temperature stress in crop plants. Proper plant nutrition is one of the good strategies to alleviate the temperature stress and in crop plants. Plant nutrients play a greater role in improv-ing the temperature stress tolerance. In this paper we discuss the possible effective techniques to alleviate the temperature stress and the role of some macronutrients (nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium) micronutrients (boron, manganese, and selenium) and salicylic acid in detail as how these nutrients play their role in alleviation of temperature stress in crop plant.