Environmental insults such as extremes of temperature, extremes of water status as well as deteriorating soil conditions pose major threats to agriculture and food security. Employing contemporary tools and techniques from all branches of science, attempts are being made worldwide to understand how plants respond to abiotic stresses with the aim to help manipulate plant performance that will be better suited to withstand these stresses. This book on abiotic stress attempts to search for possible answers to several basic questions related to plant responses towards abiotic stresses. Presented in this book is a holistic view of the general principles of stress perception, signal transduction and regulation of gene expression. Further, chapters analyze not only model systems but extrapolate interpretations obtained from models to crops. Lastly, discusses how stress-tolerant crop or model plants have been or are being raised through plant breeding and genetic engineering approaches. Twenty three chapters, written by international authorities, integrate molecular details with overall plant structure and physiology, in a text-book style, including key references.

Nanotechnology for Abiotic Stress Tolerance and Management in Crop Plants reviews the most recent literature on the role of nanomaterials in achieving sustainability in crop production in stressful environments. This book explores the adverse conditions caused by abiotic stress to crop plants, and the methods by which these conditions can be potentially overcome through developments in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, temperature stress, excessive water, heavy metal stress, UV stress etc. are major factors which may adversely affect the growth, development, and yield of crops. While recent research for ways of overcoming the physiological and biochemical changes brought on by these stresses has focused on genetic engineering of plants, additional research continues into alternative strategies to develop stress tolerant crops, including the use of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Providing an in-depth summary of research on nanomaterials and nano-based devices for field monitoring of crops, this book will serve as an ideal reference for academics, professionals, researchers, and students working in the field of agriculture, nanotechnology, plant science, material science, and crop production. - Presents advancements in our understanding of molecular and physiological interactions between nanoparticles and crop plants - Includes figures and illustrations to help readers visualize and easily understand the role of nanomaterials - Serves as an ideal reference for those studying smart nanomaterials, biosensors, and nanodevices for real-time plant stress measurement

Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important guide to recognizing, assessing and addressing the broad range of environmental factors that can inhibit rice yield. As a staple food for nearly half of the world's population, and in light of projected population growth, improving and increasing rice yield is imperative. This book presents current research on abiotic stresses including extreme temperature variance, drought, hypoxia, salinity, heavy metal, nutrient deficiency and toxicity stresses. Going further, it identifies a variety of approaches to alleviate the damaging effects and improving the stress tolerance of rice. Advances in Rice Research for Abiotic Stress Tolerance provides an important reference for those ensuring optimal yields from this globally important food crop. - Covers aspects of abiotic stress, from research, history, practical field problems faced by rice, and the possible remedies to the adverse effects of abiotic stresses - Provides practical insights into a wide range of management and crop improvement practices - Presents a valuable, single-volume sourcebook for rice scientists dealing with agronomy, physiology, molecular biology and biotechnology

Biochemical, Physiological and Molecular Avenues for Combating Abiotic Stress in Plants is a must-have reference for researchers and professionals in agronomy, plant science and horticulture. As abiotic stress tolerance is a constant challenge for researchers and professionals working on improving crop production, this book combines recent advances with foundational content, thus offering in-depth coverage on a variety of abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms that help us better understand and improve plant response and growth under stress conditions. The mechanisms explored in this book include stress perception, signal transduction and synthesis of stress-related proteins and other molecules. In addition, the book provides a critical understanding of the networks of genes responsible for abiotic stress tolerance and their utilization in the development of stress tolerance in plants. Practical breeding techniques and modern genetic analyses are also discussed. - Unlocks the physiological, biochemical and molecular basis of abiotic stress response and tolerance in crop plants - Presents comprehensive information on abiotic stress tolerance, from gene to whole plant level - Includes content on antioxidant metabolism, marker-assisted selection, microarrays, next-generation sequencing and genome editing techniques

Plant Signaling Molecule: Role and Regulation under Stressful Environments explores tolerance mechanisms mediated by signaling molecules in plants for achieving sustainability under changing environmental conditions. Including a wide range of potential molecules, from primary to secondary metabolites, the book presents the status and future prospects of the role and regulation of signaling molecules at physiological, biochemical, molecular and structural level under abiotic stress tolerance. This book is designed to enhance the mechanistic understanding of signaling molecules and will be an important resource for plant biologists in developing stress tolerant crops to achieve sustainability under changing environmental conditions. - Focuses on plant biology under stress conditions - Provides a compendium of knowledge related to plant adaptation, physiology, biochemistry and molecular responses - Identifies treatments that enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stresses - Illustrates specific physiological pathways that are considered key points for plant adaptation or tolerance to abiotic stresses