Genomic and proteomic responses to drought stress and biotechnological interventions for enhanced drought tolerance in plants

Abstract

Drought stress, an inevitable factor due to global climate change, hampers plant biomass production and overall yield. Drought mediated stress sensitivity exerts multi-dimensional effect on transcriptional and proteomic variations leading to changes in morphological, physiological, metabolic and hormonal responses. To cope up water scarcity, plants adapt several drought avoidances or tolerance mechanisms including biochemical, physiological and gene regulatory networks, leading to their effective survival. Genomic intervention modulates the defensive strategies of drought-related to phytohormones (auxins, cytokinins, ethylene, ABA and brassinosteroids), signalling molecules (e.g. nitric oxide), transcription factors, and transcriptional and translational modifications. Further, proteomic modulation is allied with antioxidant defence, photosynthesis, respiration, stomatal conductance, cell signalling and post-translational modifications of proteins. These factors exhibit strong mitigation strategies related to the acclimatisation of plants in response to water deficit. This review presents mechanistic explanations to draught stress following genomic and proteomic approaches, and suggests effective morpho-physiological, biochemical, and bio-technological strategies to overcome the negative impacts of drought stress. It highlights current knowledge, potential strategies and future possibilities to improve drought tolerance and crop yield.