One of the most chronic constraints to crop production is the grain yield reduction near the crop harvest stage by lodging worldwide. This is more prevalent in cereal crops, particularly in wheat and rice. Major factors associated with lodging involve morphological and anatomical traits along with the chemical composition of the stem. These traits have built up the remarkable relationship in wheat and rice genotypes either prone to lodging or displaying lodging resistance. In this review, we have made a comparison of our conceptual perceptions with foregoing published reports and proposed the fundamental controlling techniques that could be practiced to control the devastating effects of lodging stress. The management of lodging stress is, however, reliant on chemical, agronomical, and genetic factors that are reducing the risk of lodging threat in wheat and rice. But, still, there are many questions remain to be answered to elucidate the complex lodging phenomenon, so agronomists, breeders, physiologists, and molecular biologists require further investigation to address this challenging problem.

Fusarium head blight (FHB), a devastating disease that affects wheat, is caused by a complex of Fusarium species. The overall impact of Fusarium spp. in wheat production arises through the combination of FHB and mycotoxin infection of the grain harvested from infected wheat spikes. Spike infection occurs during opening of flowers and is favoured by high humidity or wet weather accompanied with warm temperatures. Available possibilities for controlling FHB include the use of cultural practices, fungicides and biological approaches. Three cultural practices are expected to be of prime importance in controlling FHB and the production of mycotoxins: soil preparation method (deep tillage), the choice of the preceding crop in the rotation and the selection of appropriate cultivar.

Pre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is one of the most important factors having adverse effects on yield and grain quality all over the world, particularly in wet harvest conditions. PHS is controlled by both genetic and environmental factors and the interaction of these factors. Breeding varieties with high PHS resistance have important implications for reducing yield loss and improving grain quality. The rapid advancements in the wheat genomic database along with transcriptomic and proteomic technologies have broadened our knowledge for understanding the regulatory mechanism of PHS resistance at transcriptomic and post-transcriptomic levels. In this review, we have described in detail the recent advancements on factors influencing PHS resistance, including grain color, seed dormancy, α-amylase activity, plant hormones (especially abscisic acid and gibberellin), and QTL/genes, which are useful for mining new PHS-resistant genes and developing new molecular markers for multi-gene pyramiding breeding of wheat PHS resistance, and understanding the complicated regulatory mechanism of PHS resistance.

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The astonishing increase in temperature presents an alarming threat to crop production worldwide. As evident by huge yield decline in various crops, the escalating drastic impacts of heat stress (HS) are putting global food production as well as nutritional security at high risk. HS is a major abiotic stress that influences plant morphology, physiology, reproduction, and productivity worldwide. The physiological and molecular responses to HS are dynamic research areas, and molecular techniques are being adopted for producing heat tolerant crop plants. In this article, we reviewed recent findings, impacts, adoption, and tolerance at the cellular, organellar, and whole plant level and reported several approaches that are used to improve HS tolerance in crop plants. Omics approaches unravel various mechanisms underlying thermotolerance, which is imperative to understand the processes of molecular responses toward HS. Our review about physiological and molecular mechanisms may enlighten ways to develop thermo-tolerant cultivars and to produce crop plants that are agriculturally important in adverse climatic conditions. 128 2 of 34 and osmotic adjustment and re-establish the redox balance of cell and homeostasis by modify the antioxidant system [10,11]. A plant in defense from HS causes modifications at the molecular level in the expression of genes [12]. In HS conditions, change in biochemical and physiological activities by gene expression alter gradually, resulting in the development of thermotolerance [13]. In order to successfully produce HS-tolerant crop varieties in the light of global climate change, there is need of knowledge and investigations about HS-tolerance mechanisms at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels.At present, investigations into selection strategy and breeding for thermotolerant cultivars and understanding of heat tolerance mechanisms are more required today than ever before. Molecular and genetic mechanisms for avoiding HS-induced harmful changes play a crucial role in plant survival under such circumstances. In the present scenario of global warming, the major challenge for plant scientists is to develop new crop varieties tolerant to HS [14]. In the coming years, agricultural production will have to deal with growing crops under sub-optimal conditions accompanied by increased food demand, creating a gap between the current yield achievements and yield potential [15]. Developing genetically modified plants through target genes manipulation, QTLs, and omics techniques are widely studied molecular approaches in recent years. Our study about sensitivity, adaptations, mechanisms, and approaches may uncover ways to develop thermo-tolerant cultivars and to produce crop plants that are agriculturally important in adverse climatic conditions. Plant Sensitivity to Heat StressPlant sensitivity to HS varies with duration, plant type, and the degree of temperature. Plant growth and development are greatly influenced by the series of morphological, physiological, and biochemical changes resul...