Chapter 31 - Use of Phytohormones in Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance to Rice

Abstract

Rice is a staple nutriment in the world. With the growing population and urbanization, the demand for the rice is increasing. But the rice production is not escalating at a requisite rate to keep up with the food demand because of the various environmental abiotic stresses such as drought, cold, salinity, and heavy metals. So it is very necessary to develop a technology to produce large amount of rice in the presence of multiple environmental stress conditions. Conventional plant breeding methods have been attempted to produce abiotic stress–tolerant rice genotypes. But they are time consuming, laborious, and depended on existing genetic variability. Therefore the exogenous application of phytohormones has gained considerable attention because they will not cause any harm to the environment and they are more active in the stress conditions. Phytohormones are natural products in the plants and they are called plant growth regulators, when they are synthesized chemically. Though the metabolism of plants provides the power and building blocks for plant life, the phytohormones regulate the speed of growth and integrate them to produce the form of a plant. Phytohormones also act as a mediator of the plant resistance to pathogens and adverse environmental conditions. The chief objective of this chapter is to deliver the art of information on the role of phytohormones in improving abiotic stress tolerance to rice plants.