Genetic improvement of drought stress tolerance in maize, recent advancements and future research direction

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Maize is an imperative crop around the globe, and it provides several essential nutrients to humans and animals. Environmental changes seriously affect growth and productivity. Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses, reducing maize growth and yield and threatening global food security. For decades, breeders have been trying to improve maize's ability to counter the toxic effects of drought stress. Drought tolerance is controlled by many genes and it complicates molecular breeding. The use of conventional breeding methods limited the development of drought tolerance in maize because of the complex nature of this trait. Hence, maize breeders have shifted their focus towards improvement of drought tolerance in maize at molecular level. Different molecular tools like quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, genome-wide-association-studies (GWAS), transcriptome analysis, transcription factor (TFs) analysis, and CRISPR/Cas9 have played a vital role in gene’s identification and their use in molecular breeding. These genomic regions have been proven very effective, and more studies are being conducted to increase their efficiency; however, the improvement level is limited because of the complex genetic mechanism of drought tolerance. Different review articles have been published on this aspect; however, a comprehensive and updated overview of drought tolerance needs to be included. The current review highlights the role of diverse molecular techniques to improve drought tolerance in maize. This review article will enhance the interest of researchers working on the genetic improvement of maize.