Drought Traits Research Articles

Genomic determinants, architecture, and constraints in drought-related traits in Corymbia calophylla

BackgroundDrought adaptation is critical to many tree species persisting under climate change, however our knowledge of the genetic basis for trees to adapt to drought is limited. This knowledge gap impedes our fundamental understanding of drought response and application to forest production and conservation. To improve our understanding of the genomic determinants, architecture, and trait constraints, we assembled a reference genome and detected ~ 6.5 M variants in 432 phenotyped individuals for the foundational tree Corymbia calophylla.ResultsWe found 273 genomic variants determining traits with moderate heritability (h2SNP = 0.26–0.64). Significant variants were predominantly in gene regulatory elements distributed among several haplotype blocks across all chromosomes. Furthermore, traits were constrained by frequent epistatic and pleiotropic interactions.ConclusionsOur results on the genetic basis for drought traits in Corymbia calophylla have several implications for the ability to adapt to climate change: (1) drought related traits are controlled by complex genomic architectures with large haplotypes, epistatic, and pleiotropic interactions; (2) the most significant variants determining drought related traits occurred in regulatory regions; and (3) models incorporating epistatic interactions increase trait predictions. Our findings indicate that despite moderate heritability drought traits are likely constrained by complex genomic architecture potentially limiting trees response to climate change.

Genome-wide genetic architecture for plant maturity and drought tolerance in diploid potatoes.

Cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) is known to be highly susceptible to drought. With climate change and its frequent episodes of drought, potato growers will face increased challenges to achieving their yield goals. Currently, a high proportion of untapped potato germplasm remains within the diploid potato relatives, and the genetic architecture of the drought tolerance and maturity traits of diploid potatoes is still unknown. As such, a panel of 384 ethyl methanesulfonate-mutagenized diploid potato clones were evaluated for drought tolerance and plant maturity under field conditions. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) were conducted to dissect the genetic architecture of the traits. The results obtained from the genetic structure analysis of the panel showed five main groups and seven subgroups. Using the Genome Association and Prediction Integrated Tool-mixed linear model GWAS statistical model, 34 and 17 significant quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) were found associated with maturity and drought traits, respectively. Chromosome 5 carried most of the QTNs, some of which were also detected by using the restricted two-stage multi-locus multi-allele-GWAS haploblock-based model, and two QTNs were found to be pleiotropic for both maturity and drought traits. Using the non-parametric U-test, one and three QTNs, with 5.13%-7.4% phenotypic variations explained, showed favorable allelic effects that increase the maturity and drought trait values. The quantitaive trait loci (QTLs)/QTNs associated with maturity and drought trait were found co-located in narrow (0.5-1kb) genomic regions with 56 candidate genes playing roles in plant development and senescence and in abiotic stress responses. A total of 127 potato clones were found to be late maturing and tolerant to drought, while nine were early to moderate-late maturing and tolerant to drought. Taken together, the data show that the studied germplasm panel and the identified candidate genes are prime genetic resources for breeders and biologists in conventional breeding and targeted gene editing as climate adaptation tools.

Assessing unmanned aerial vehicle‐based imagery for breeding applications in St. Augustinegrass under drought and non‐drought conditions

AbstractThe use of imagery collected from small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in turfgrass breeding has rapidly increased, as has the demand to develop drought‐resistant cultivars. However, prior to adopting UAVs to help guide turfgrass selection under drought stress conditions, a clear understanding of the value and predictive ability of imagery‐based turfgrass characterization is required. In St. Augustinegrass, a major warm‐season turfgrass species grown in the Southeastern United States, limited research has been published about characterizing drought stress using aerial imagery. Specifically, no efforts have compared the various vegetation indices (VIs) commonly used to evaluate vegetative health in other species and sought to identify the most useful index for phenotyping drought stress traits in St. Augustinegrass. In this study, traditional ground‐based approaches for measuring percent green cover (PGC) and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) were compared against their UAV‐derived counterparts as well as 13 VIs under drought and non‐drought conditions, and broad‐sense heritability (H2) was calculated. A population of 115 genotypes from a ‘‘Raleigh’’ × ‘‘Seville’’ cross were analyzed at two environmentally distinct field sites in North Carolina. At both sites, a significant relationship between ground‐based and UAV‐derived measurements for PGC and NDVI was observed before and during drought (r = 0.82 to 0.95) and suggests a clear advantage to using UAVs for phenotyping drought traits given the reduced time and labor costs compared to on‐ground efforts. Among all VIs compared, UAV‐derived NDVI (NDVI‐U) showed strong correlation with the PGC taken on the ground (r > 0.85), a similar trend over time, and a higher H2 estimate under drought conditions, suggesting that NDVI‐U has the potential to assist in the selection of St. Augustinegrass genotypes with the best phenotypic response to drought. Implementing UAV imagery‐based high‐throughput methods will allow breeders to evaluate germplasm with unbiased quantitative consistency, quickly and thoroughly, and with increased frequency—all without sacrificing the response to selection potential.

Lupenone, a wonder chemical obtained from Euphorbia segetalis to boost affinity for the transcriptional factor escalating drought-tolerance in Solanum Lycopersicum: A cutting-edge computational biology approach.

Drought is the single greatest abiotic factor influencing crop yield worldwide. Plants remain in one area for extended periods, making them vulnerable to natural and man-made influences. Understanding plant drought responses will help us develop strategies for breeding drought-resistant crops. Large proteome analysis revealed that leaf and root tissue proteins respond to drought differently depending on the plant's genotype. Commonly known as tomatoes, Solanum Lycopersicum is a globally important vegetable crop. However, drought stress is one of the most significant obstacles to tomato production, making the development of cultivars adapted to dry conditions an essential goal of agricultural biotechnology. Breeders have put quite a lot of time and effort into the tomato to increase its productivity, adaptability, and resistance to biotic and abiotic challenges. However, conventional tomato breeding has only improved drought resistance due to the complexity of drought traits. The resilience of tomatoes under drought stress has been the subject of extensive study. Using contemporary sequencing approaches like genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics has dramatically aided in discovering drought-responsive genes. One of the most prominent families of plant transcription factors, WRKY genes, plays a crucial role in plant growth and development in response to natural and abiotic stimuli. To develop plants that can withstand both biotic and abiotic stress, understanding the relationships between WRKY-proteins (transcription factors) and other proteins and ligands in plant cells is essential. This is despite the fact that tomatoes have a long history of domestication. This research aims to utilize Lupenone, a hormone produced in plant roots in response to stress, to increase drought resistance in plants. Lupenone exhibits a strong affinity for the WRKY protein at -9.64 kcal/mol. Molecular docking and modeling studies show that these polyphenols have a significant role in making Solanum Lycopersicum drought-resistant and improving the quality of its fruit. As a result of climate change, droughts are occurring more frequently and persisting for more extended periods, making it necessary to breed crops resistant to drought. While considerable variability for tolerance exists in wild cousins, little is known about the processes and essential genes influencing drought tolerance in cultivated tomato species.

Exploring Genetic and Molecular Diversity of Indian Rice Landraces: A Molecular Marker-Driven Study Incorporating D2 Analysis

Assessing genetic diversity is the key factor for enhanced crop breeding programme which aids in improving desirable characteristics in the cultivars. In the present study, 200 rice landraces were initially screened using PEG at -7 bar concentration for drought tolerance. From the 200 landraces, 12 lines with 50 % germination were chosen to assess molecular and genetic divergence. A total of 50 SSR markers were utilized across the identified 12 drought tolerant genotypes along with two susceptible and two tolerant checks to assess divergence among the genotypes. Among the 50 SSR markers, 49 exhibited polymorphisms with a PIC value ranged from 0.82 (RM447) to 0.30 (RM418) with an average of 0.63. The number of alleles varied from two (RM408, RM418, RM512) to eight (RM404) with an average of 4.4 allele per marker and a total of 216 alleles were observed. Based on unweighted pair group of arithmetic mean (UPGMA) method a dendrogram was constructed and the genotypes were grouped in four main clusters. Among the four, cluster I holding more number of genotypes than cluster IV with high dissimilarity coefficient of 0.88. Further D2 analysis for five drought traits at seedling stage revealed the similarity and diversity among the landraces by separating them in different clusters based on genetic distance. The highest inter cluster distance of 175.96 were noticed between cluster 2 and 3 with high divergence which aids in better selection of landraces. Both molecular and genetic diversity shows distinct divergence among the genotypes which exhibits broader genetic base with wider adaptability.

Drought stress in maize: stress perception to molecular response and strategies for its improvement.

Given the future demand for food crops, increasing crop productivity in drought-prone rainfed areas has become essential. Drought-tolerant varieties are warranted to solve this problem in major crops, with drought tolerance as a high-priority trait for future research. Maize is one such crop affected by drought stress, which limits production, resulting in substantial economic losses. It became a more serious issue due to global climate change. The most drought sensitive among all stages of maize is the reproductive stages and the most important for overall maize production. The exact molecular basis of reproductive drought sensitivity remains unclear due to genes' complex regulation of drought stress. Understanding the molecular biology and signaling of the unexplored area of reproductive drought tolerance will provide an opportunity to develop climate-smart drought-tolerant next-generation maize cultivars. In recent decades, significant progress has been made in maize to understand the drought tolerance mechanism. However, improving maize drought tolerance through breeding is ineffective due to the complex nature and multigenic control of drought traits. With the help of advanced breeding techniques, molecular genetics, and a precision genome editing approach like CRISPR-Cas, candidate genes for drought-tolerant maize can be identified and targeted. This review summarizes the effects of drought stress on each growth stage of maize, potential genes, and transcription factors that determine drought tolerance. In addition, we discussed drought stress sensing, its molecular mechanisms, different approaches to developing drought-resistant maize varieties, and how molecular breeding and genome editing will help with the current unpredictable climate change.

Realistic Physiological Options to Increase Grain Legume Yield under Drought.

Increasing yield resiliency under water deficits remains a high priority for crop improvement. In considering the yield benefit of a plant trait modification, two facts are often overlooked: (1) the total amount of water available to a crop through a growing season ultimately constrains growth and yield cannot exceed what is possible with the limited amount of available water, and (2) soil water content always changes over time, so plant response needs to be considered within a temporally dynamic context of day-to-day variation in soil water status. Many previous evaluations of drought traits have implicitly considered water deficit from a "static" perspective, but while the static approach of stable water deficit treatments is experimentally congruous, the results are not realistic representations of real-world drought conditions, where soil water levels are always changing. No trait always results in a positive response under all drought scenarios. In this paper, we suggest two key traits for improving grain legume yield under water deficit conditions: (1) partial stomata closure at elevated atmospheric vapor pressure deficit that results in soil water conservation, and (2) lessening of the high sensitivity of nitrogen fixation activity to soil drying.

Physiological traits and response strategies of four subtropical tree species exposed to drought

World-wide, forests are experiencing drought-induced mortality. However, physiological adaptation to drought is highly variable, which may lead to differential mortality patterns and alter community structure. In this study, saplings of four common tree species ( Ormosia pinnata , Dalbergia odorifera , Castanopsis fissa and Michelia macclurei ) grown in subtropical plantations in southern China were subjected to average rainfall and three drought treatments, consisting of low (25% rainfall reduction), moderate (50% rainfall reduction) and high (75% rainfall reduction) drought. To investigate their drought response strategies and select tree species with higher drought tolerance, we examined plant traits, including tree growth, stomatal regulation, water relations, carbon dynamics and morphology, that might contribute to drought tolerance. We found that O. pinnata adapted to drought by decreasing turgor loss point (TLP) and increasing leaf dry matter content and leaf mass per area (LMA). D. odorifera exhibited low leaf minimum conductance and high LMA as the key drought traits to reduce water loss. C. fissa was slowest to initiate stomatal closure but completed stomatal closure more rapidly than the other species. Drought reduced light-saturated photosynthetic rates (A sat ) for O. pinnata , D. odorifera and C. fissa primarily due to declining stomatal conductance (g s ), with lesser limitations due to the biochemical capacity of Rubisco carboxylation (V cmax ) and electron transport (J max ). M. macclurei was the first species to close stomata. Drought did not affect A sat for M. macclurei due to stable photosynthetic biochemical processes; however, V cmax regulation of A sat increased with drought intensity. There was trait variation in the capacity of study trees to tolerate drought, with M. macclurei exhibiting the highest capacity to tolerate drought due to key stomatal (earlier stomatal closure) and hydraulic (lower TLP) traits reducing plant water loss with progressive drought stress. • Selecting species with morphological and physiological traits that confer high drought tolerance and resistance will be critical for designing and managing plantations. • M. macclurei might be the best adapted plantation tree for growth in future drier climates. • M. macclurei exhibited high drought avoidance and resistance, and maintained photosynthesis.

Future global concurrent droughts and their effects on maize yield

Droughts are one of the most devastating natural disasters. Droughts can co-exist in different forms (e.g. meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural) as concurrent droughts. Such concurrent droughts can have far reaching implications for crop yield and global food security. The present study aims to assess global concurrent drought traits and their effects on maize yield under climate change. The standardized indices of precipitation, runoff, and soil moisture incorporated as multivariate standardized drought index (MSDI) using copula functions are used to quantify the concurrent droughts. The ensemble data of several General Circulation Models (GCMs) considering the high emission scenario of Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 6 (CMIP6) are utilized. Applying run theory on a time series (1950–2100) of MSDI values, the duration, severity, areal coverage, and average areal intensity of concurrent droughts are computed. The temporal evolution of drought duration and severity are compared among historical (1950–2014), near future (2021–2060), and far future (2061–2100) timeframes. The results indicate that the most vulnerable regions in the late 21st century are Central America, the Mediterranean, Southern Africa, and the Amazon basin. The indices and spatial extent of the individual droughts are used as predictor variables to predict the country-level crop index of the top seven producers of maize. The historical dynamics between maize yield and different drought forms are projected using XGBoost (Extreme Gradient Boosting) algorithms. The future temporal changes in drought-crop yield dynamics are tracked using probabilities of various drought forms under yield-loss conditions. The conditional concurrent drought probabilities are as high as 84 %, 64 %, and 37 % in France, Mexico, and Brazil, revealing that concurrent drought affects the maize yield tremendously in the far future. This approach of applying statistical and soft-computing techniques could aid in drought mitigation under changing climatic conditions.

Drought tolerance improvement in Solanum lycopersicum: an insight into "OMICS" approaches and genome editing.

Solanum lycopersicum (tomato) is an internationally acclaimed vegetable crop that is grown worldwide. However, drought stress is one of the most critical challenges for tomato production, and it is a crucial task for agricultural biotechnology to produce drought-resistant cultivars. Although breeders have done a lot of work on the tomato to boost quality and quantity of production and enhance resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses, conventional tomato breeding approaches have been limited to improving drought tolerance because of the intricacy of drought traits. Many efforts have been made to better understand the mechanisms involved in adaptation and tolerance to drought stress in tomatoes throughout the years. "Omics" techniques, such as genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in combination with modern sequencing technologies, have tremendously aided the discovery of drought-responsive genes. In addition, the availability of biotechnological tools, such as plant transformation and the recently developed genome editing system for tomatoes, has opened up wider opportunities for validating the function of drought-responsive genes and the generation of drought-tolerant varieties. This review highlighted the recent progresses for tomatoes improvement against drought stress through "omics" and "multi-omics" technologies including genetic engineering. We have also discussed the roles of non-coding RNAs and genome editing techniques for drought stress tolerance improvement in tomatoes.

PHYSIOLOGICAL, MORPHOLOGICAL & BIOCHEMICAL RESPONSE OF WHEAT (TRITICUM AESTIVUM) AGAINST HEAT & DROUGHT STRESS AND THE TOLERANCE MECHANISM – A REVIEW

Wheat is a mainstay of Nepalese cuisine, and it is the third most important cereal crop cultivated throughout the nation all through the winter months. The impact of abiotic stress on wheat, such as heat and drought, is discussed in this review article. Drought and heat stress influence biochemical, physiological, and morphological processes in plants, causing a significant reduction in yield and yield attributing characteristics. Drought at CRI reduces yield by 60%, while Heat stress causes about 16 yield loss depending on the severity of the environment. Understanding the physiological and biochemical responses of crops to any unfavorable circumstance is essential for developing mechanisms and techniques for plant tolerance. Drought tolerance is managed by drought escape, drought avoidance and drought traits. Heat stress is also endured by the plant’s anti-oxidative defense mechanism and the synthesis of heat shock proteins (HSPs).

GBS-SNP and SSR based genetic mapping and QTL analysis for drought tolerance in upland cotton.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12298-021-01041-y.

Identification for surrogate drought tolerance in maize inbred lines utilizing high-throughput phenomics approach.

Screening for drought tolerance requires precise techniques like phonemics, which is an emerging science aimed at non-destructive methods allowing large-scale screening of genotypes. Large-scale screening complements genomic efforts to identify genes relevant for crop improvement. Thirty maize inbred lines from various sources (exotic and indigenous) maintained at Dryland Agriculture Research Station were used in the current study. In the automated plant transport and imaging systems (LemnaTec Scanalyzer system for large plants), top and side view images were taken of the VIS (visible) and NIR (near infrared) range of the light spectrum to capture phenes. All images were obtained with a thermal imager. All sensors were used to collect images one day after shifting the pots from the greenhouse for 11 days. Image processing was done using pre-processing, segmentation and flowered by features’ extraction. Different surrogate traits such as pixel area, plant aspect ratio, convex hull ratio and calliper length were estimated. A strong association was found between canopy temperature and above ground biomass under stress conditions. Promising lines in different surrogates will be utilized in breeding programmes to develop mapping populations for traits of interest related to drought resilience, in terms of improved tissue water status and mapping of genes/QTLs for drought traits.

Adaptive plasticity in plant traits increases time to hydraulic failure under drought in a foundation tree.

The viability of forest trees, in response to climate change-associated drought, will depend on their capacity to survive through genetic adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in drought tolerance traits. Genotypes with enhanced plasticity for drought tolerance (adaptive plasticity) will have a greater ability to persist and delay the onset of hydraulic failure. By examining populations from different climate-origins grown under contrasting soil water availability, we tested for genotype (G), environment (E) and genotype-by-environment (G×E) effects on traits that determine the time it takes for saplings to desiccate from stomatal closure to 88% loss of stem hydraulic conductance (time to hydraulic failure, THF). Specifically, we hypothesized that: (i) THF is dependent on a G×E interaction, with longer THF for warm, dry climate populations in response to chronic water deficit treatment compared with cool, wet populations, and (ii) hydraulic and allometric traits explain the observed patterns in THF. Corymbia calophylla saplings from two populations originating from contrasting climates (warm-dry or cool-wet) were grown under well-watered and chronic soil water deficit treatments in large containers. Hydraulic and allometric traits were measured and then saplings were dried-down to critical levels of drought stress to estimate THF. Significant plasticity was detected in the warm-dry population in response to water-deficit, with enhanced drought tolerance compared with the cool-wet population. Projected leaf area and total plant water storage showed treatment variation, and minimum conductance showed significant population differences driving longer THF in trees from warm-dry origins grown in water-limited conditions. Our findings contribute information on intraspecific variation in key drought traits, including hydraulic and allometric determinants of THF. It highlights the need to quantify adaptive capacity in populations of forest trees in climate change-type drought to improve predictions of forest die-back.

Evolvability of Drought Response in Four Native and Non-native Conifers: Opportunities for Forest and Genetic Resource Management in Europe.

Intraspecific genetic variation in drought response is expected to play an important role in determining the persistence of tree populations in global change as it (1) allows for spontaneous selection and local adaptation of tree populations, (2) supports assisted seed transfer of less-drought-sensitive provenance, and (3) enables the integration of drought-sensitivity traits into tree breeding. Estimating the potential of such adaptation options requires quantitative genetic knowledge of drought sensitivity across significant parts of species distributions and a comparative assessment of genetic variation within economically and ecologically important tree species. We quantified genetic variation within and among populations of four conifers growing within common garden experiments in the drought-prone eastern Austria. This region experienced three strong drought periods between 1980 and 2010 that resulted in significant reductions in radial growth. Among the four tested species, Douglas-fir revealed the highest resistance during drought and silver fir the best recovery after drought, while European larch and Norway spruce showed the lowest resistance. High genetic variation among populations and phenotypic stability across all three drought events was found for Norway spruce and silver fir, but not for the other species. Heritability and evolvability of drought traits, both approximated via genetic repeatability, revealed strong differences among populations of all four species. Repeatability and evolvability for resistance were highest in Norway spruce and, for recovery, highest in European larch. Our comparison indicates that the mean drought sensitivity of a species is not related to the intraspecific genetic variation in drought response. Thus, also highly drought-sensitive species, such as Norway spruce and European larch, harbor significant genetic variation in drought response within and among populations to justify targeted tree breeding, assisted gene flow, and supportive forest management to foster local adaptations to future conditions.

Diverging hydrological drought traits over Europe with global warming

Abstract. Climate change is anticipated to alter the demand and supply of water at the earth's surface. Since many societal impacts from a lack of water happen under drought conditions, it is important to understand how droughts may develop with climate change. This study shows how hydrological droughts will change across Europe with increasing global warming levels (GWLs of 1.5, 2, and 3 K above pre-industrial temperature). We employed a low-flow analysis based on river discharge simulations of the LISFLOOD (De Roo et al., 2000) spatially distributed physically based hydrological and water use model, which was forced with a large ensemble of regional climate model projections under high emissions (RCP8.5) and moderate mitigation (RCP4.5) Representative Concentration Pathways. Different traits of drought, including severity, duration, and frequency, were investigated using the threshold level method. The projected changes in these traits identify four main sub-regions in Europe that are characterized by somehow homogeneous and distinct behaviours with a clear south-west–north-east contrast. The Mediterranean and Boreal sub-regions (defined in Sect. 3.1.1) of Europe show strong but opposite changes at all three GWLs, with the former area mostly characterized by stronger droughts (with larger differences at 3 K), while the latter is expected to experience a reduction in all drought traits. In the Atlantic and Continental sub-regions, the changes are expected to be less marked and characterized by a larger uncertainty, especially at the 1.5 and 2 K GWLs. Combining the projections in drought hazard with population and agricultural information shows that with 3 K global warming an additional 11 million people and 4.5 ×106 ha of agricultural land are projected to be exposed to droughts every year, on average, with the most affected areas located in the Mediterranean and Atlantic regions of Europe.

Mohammed Armani.

Mohammed Armani.

Superior haplotypes for haplotype-based breeding for drought tolerance in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan L.).

Summary Haplotype‐based breeding, a recent promising breeding approach to develop tailor‐made crop varieties, deals with identification of superior haplotypes and their deployment in breeding programmes. In this context, whole genome re‐sequencing data of 292 genotypes from pigeonpea reference set were mined to identify the superior haplotypes for 10 drought‐responsive candidate genes. A total of 83, 132 and 60 haplotypes were identified in breeding lines, landraces and wild species, respectively. Candidate gene‐based association analysis of these 10 genes on a subset of 137 accessions of the pigeonpea reference set revealed 23 strong marker‐trait associations (MTAs) in five genes influencing seven drought‐responsive component traits. Haplo‐pheno analysis for the strongly associated genes resulted in the identification of most promising haplotypes for three genes regulating five component drought traits. The haplotype C. cajan_23080‐H2 for plant weight (PW), fresh weight (FW) and turgid weight (TW), the haplotype C. cajan_30211‐H6 for PW, FW, TW and dry weight (DW), the haplotype C. cajan_26230‐H11 for FW and DW and the haplotype C. cajan_26230‐H5 for relative water content (RWC) were identified as superior haplotypes under drought stress condition. Furthermore, 17 accessions containing superior haplotypes for three drought‐responsive genes were identified. The identified superior haplotypes and the accessions carrying these superior haplotypes will be very useful for deploying haplotype‐based breeding to develop next‐generation tailor‐made better drought‐responsive pigeonpea cultivars.

Drought Resistance by Engineering Plant Tissue-Specific Responses.

Drought is the primary cause of agricultural loss globally, and represents a major threat to food security. Currently, plant biotechnology stands as one of the most promising fields when it comes to developing crops that are able to produce high yields in water-limited conditions. From studies of Arabidopsis thaliana whole plants, the main response mechanisms to drought stress have been uncovered, and multiple drought resistance genes have already been engineered into crops. So far, most plants with enhanced drought resistance have displayed reduced crop yield, meaning that there is still a need to search for novel approaches that can uncouple drought resistance from plant growth. Our laboratory has recently shown that the receptors of brassinosteroid (BR) hormones use tissue-specific pathways to mediate different developmental responses during root growth. In Arabidopsis, we found that increasing BR receptors in the vascular plant tissues confers resistance to drought without penalizing growth, opening up an exceptional opportunity to investigate the mechanisms that confer drought resistance with cellular specificity in plants. In this review, we provide an overview of the most promising phenotypical drought traits that could be improved biotechnologically to obtain drought-tolerant cereals. In addition, we discuss how current genome editing technologies could help to identify and manipulate novel genes that might grant resistance to drought stress. In the upcoming years, we expect that sustainable solutions for enhancing crop production in water-limited environments will be identified through joint efforts.

Options and opportunities for manipulation of drought traits using endophytes in crops

Drought is a major cause of yield reduction in a wide range of crops. Under the fast-changing climate scenario, drought episodes are expected to be more frequent, further penalizing crop yields. There is a need to enhance crop adaptation to drought for sustained productivity. Attempts have been made to validate and manipulate drought-traits in crops with some degree of success. There are evidence to show that plant and its associated microbiome interact and modulate traits in host plants. From this context, efforts are being made to manipulate drought traits using endophytes. In this review, we highlight the importance of associating endophytes with drought traits and the relevance of endophyte mediated manipulation of traits for crop production under water limiting conditions.