Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants: Breeding and Biotechnology

Abiotic stressors have come to play a vital role in crop production, with some persisting in soil, water, or the atmosphere. The information on mechanisms of injury and tolerance, variability of tolerance, and breeding and biotechnology for improving crop plants resistance to abiotic stress is currently scattered throughout various journal articles and edited books. This book aims to present this information in an organized manner, complete with up-to-date citations, providing a comprehensive overview of recent advances in the field. Emphasis has been placed on explaining injury and tolerance mechanisms and developing improved genotypes for stress environments. The book also addresses the symptoms of specific abiotic stress, soil reclamation, and crop/cropping patterns to mitigate the effects of adverse conditions. Systematic approaches for developing abiotic stress-tolerant genotypes using biotechnological tools are detailed, as are the use of molecular markers in stress tolerance and the development of transgenic plants. The final three chapters of the book focus on the effects of air pollution and climate change on crop plants. Under abiotic stress, plants produce a large number of free radicals (oxidants), which are explained in a dedicated section on Oxidative Stress. The book is divided into seven major sections: physical stress (salt), water stress (drought and waterlogging), temperature stress (heat and cold), metal toxicities (aluminum, iron, cadmium, lead, nickel, chromium, copper, zinc, etc.), and non-metal toxicities (boron and arsenic), oxidative stress, and finally atmospheric stress (air pollution, radiation, and climate change). This book will be of great benefit to students, researchers, particularly plant breeders and biotechnologists, as well as botanists, who seek to understand the mechanisms of injury and tolerance and improve crop genotypes for abiotic stress.