A comprehensive understanding of CMS/Rf system enabled by modern omics tools and technologies considerably improves our ability to harness hybrid technology for enhancing the productivity of field crops. Harnessing hybrid vigor or heterosis is a promising approach to tackle the current challenge of sustaining enhanced yield gains of field crops. In the context, cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) owing to its heritable nature to manifest non-functional male gametophyte remains a cost-effective system to promote efficient hybrid seed production. The phenomenon of CMS stems from a complex interplay between maternally-inherited (mitochondrion) and bi-parental (nucleus) genomic elements. In recent years, attempts aimed to comprehend the sterility-inducing factors (orfs) and corresponding fertility determinants (Rf) in plants have greatly increased our access to candidate genomic segments and the cloned genes. To this end, novel insights obtained by applying state-of-the-art omics platforms have substantially enriched our understanding of cytoplasmic-nuclear communication. Concomitantly, molecular tools including DNA markers have been implicated in crop hybrid breeding in order to greatly expedite the progress. Here, we review the status of diverse sterility-inducing cytoplasms and associated Rf factors reported across different field crops along with exploring opportunities for integrating modern omics tools with CMS-based hybrid breeding.

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The study evaluates the drought characteristics in India over projected climatic scenarios in different time frames, that is, near‐future (2010–2039), mid‐future (2040–2069), and far‐future (2070–2099) in comparison with reference period (1976–2005). Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), a multi‐scalar drought index was used owing to its robustness in capturing drought conditions while accounting the temperature. Gridded rainfall and temperature data provided by India Meteorological Department (IMD) was used to perform bias correction of nine Global Climate Models (GCMs) from Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) project. Quantile mapping was used to correct the daily rainfall data at seasonal scale whereas daily temperature data was corrected at monthly scale. Multi‐Model Ensemble (MME) was prepared for different homogeneous monsoon regions of India, namely Hilly Regions (HR), Central Northeast (CNE), Northeast (NE), Northwest (NW), West Central (WC), and Peninsula (PS). Taylor diagram statistics were used for the preparation of MME. The regional climate cycle obtained from MME was found to be in good agreement with observed cycle derived from IMD data. The Mann–Kendal trend test was employed to detect the trend in drought severity and magnitude whereas L‐moments based frequency analysis was used to assess the magnitude of extreme drought severity under different time frames. The study reveals an increasing trend in drought severity, duration, occurrences, and the average length of drought under warming climate scenarios. Furthermore, the area under “above moderate drought” (i.e., severe and extreme drought combined) condition was also found to be increasing in projected climate.

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