Understanding molecular alphabets of the plant abiotic stress responses

Abstract

Abiotic stresses elicit complex cellular responses. This complexity made many believe for a long time that tolerance to abiotic stresses cannot be experimentally manipulated. Fortunately, this contention has proven wrong in recent years. Considered once to be an arduous task, genetic engineering for increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses has been achieved to an extent. This change has come due to the progress made in exploring and understanding plant abiotic stress responses at whole-plant, physiological, biochemical, cellular and molecular levels. Plant molecular biology is a fast-expanding research frontier of our times. This important branch of science has given several clues in understanding how plants respond under stressful regimes. A great deal of success has been achieved in unveiling gene/ protein alterations associated with preparation of plants against the abiotic stresses. In parallel, major progress has been made in the characterization of stress-related promoters and transcription factors as well as stress signalling components. This article takes a broad look at molecular responses of plants to different abiotic stresses.