Abstract
According to global climate model predictions, environmental conditions such as temperature are going to be altered. Plants will be facing high-temperature conditions that affect their development. Within this context, it is crucial to identify the target processes that influence N2 fixation and crop production under elevated temperature conditions. As it is described in this book chapter, while N2 fixation has been well characterized under other adverse environmental conditions (drought, salinity, elevated CO2 concentration, etc.), very little is known about the effect of heat stress on nodule functioning. While there are a few reports about high-temperature effect on nodule carbohydrate and amino acid contents, there is not any study analyzing oxidative stress in those nodules. Regulation of these three factors is essential for optimized N2 fixation; thus, this is a topic that should be studied in more detail. Available information confirms that high temperature strongly affects N2 fixation and plant growth, especially when plants are exposed to temperature higher than 25 °C. High temperature decreased the growth of plants due to its negative effects not only on plants’ photosynthetic performance, but also on nodule growth and development which result in decreased nodule biomass and depletion of nodule total soluble protein content. It is also remarkable that N2 fixation has been showed to be more sensitive to high temperature than photosynthesis. In this chapter, we highlight the variability in performance of various bacterial strains and plant species under high-temperature environments, and discuss about the importance of the identification of target plants and rhizobium cultivars to form optimal symbiotic combinations that will be better adapted to predicted climate change conditions. This in turn will enable higher N2 fixation efficiency and consequently plant growth under adverse environmental conditions, including high temperature.
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