Editorial: Drought Threat: Responses and Molecular-Genetic Mechanisms of Adaptation and Tolerance in Wheat

Dev Mani Pandey, Yin Gang Hu, Yuri Shavrukov, Narendra Kumar Gupta

Research output: Contribution to journalEditorial

2 Citations (Scopus)
60 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Sessile plants must combat many challenging environments and conditions, of which drought poses one of the greatest threats. Despite noteworthy improvements in crop breeding and modern agricultural management practices, drought continues to pose the most serious challenge to agricultural production. The Research Topic (RT) presented herein aimed to address the gaps in our knowledge of how plants can effectively manage drought conditions and what elements are the most critical in this adaptation process.

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is an important cereal crop grown in semi-arid and temperate regions of the world (Wan et al.). It supplies 20–30% of calories globally (Lobell and Gourdji, 2012), and is grown extensively for both for humans and livestock. Over the past two decades, global wheat yield has increased by a mere 1.0% per year (Manes et al., 2012) since it is very sensitive to adverse environmental conditions like drought, and other abiotic stresses that threaten global food security such as heat, salinity and flooding. It is expected that demand for wheat will increase by 60% by 2050, however, production may decrease by 29% as a result of climate change-imposed environmental stresses (Manickavelu et al., 2012). Without doubt, increasing drought tolerance in wheat is critical for sustainable food production and global food security (Kulkarni et al., 2017). Therefore, the development of wheat varieties with better tolerance and adaptation to drought is essential.
Original languageEnglish
Article number960162
Number of pages3
JournalFrontiers in Plant Science
Volume13
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jun 2022

Keywords

  • drought
  • gene expression
  • grain yield
  • growth and development
  • wheat

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