Alleviation of temperature stress by nutrient management in crop plants: a review

Abstract

The burgeoning population of world is expected to reach about 9-10 billion by the end of year 2050. Due to this rapidly increasing population, food productivity is decreasing. Temperature induced stress is an important environmental factor that influences the growth and development of plants. Both low and high temperatures affect plant growth and development at whole plant level, tissue and cell level and even at sub-cellular level. Temperature variation may affect morphology, anatomy, phenology and plant biochemistry at all levels of organization. Direct injuries due to high temperatures in plants include protein denaturation and aggregation, and increased fluidity of membrane lipids. Indirect or slower high temperature injuries include inactivation of enzymes in chloroplast and mitochondria, inhibition of protein synthesis, protein degradation and loss of membrane integrity. Low temperature stress during reproductive development induces flower abscission, pollen sterility, pollen tube distortion, ovule abortion and reduced fruit set, which ultimately lowers yield. A number of approaches are being used to alleviate the effect of temperature stress in crop plants. Proper plant nutrition is one of the good strategies to alleviate the temperature stress and in crop plants. Plant nutrients play a greater role in improving the temperature stress tolerance. In this paper we discuss the possible effective techniques to alleviate the temperature stress and the role of some macronutrients (nitrogen, potassium, calcium and magnesium) micronutrients (boron, manganese, and selenium) and salicylic acid in detail as how these nutrients play their role in alleviation of temperature stress in crop plant.

Mineral Uptake and Soluble Carbohydrates of Tomato Plants as Affected by Air Temperatures and Mineral Treatment Levels

“…It is well known that crop growth rates are significantly reduced by temperature stresses as results of a decrease in metabolic processes and photosynthesis (Sharkova, 2001;Wise et al, 2004;Waraich et al, 2012), shoot and root growth inhibition, and leaf senescence (Vollenweider and Gunthardt-Goerg, 2005), however the growth reduction in the present study was only observed at low temperature, and this differed from the result of our previous study with lettuce (submitted). An extra-supply of minerals to promote tomato growth did not have any effect at both low and high temperature stresses (Fig.…”

Molybdenum application enhances antioxidant enzyme activity and COR15a protein expression under cold stress in wheat

“…This damage to the intracellular membranes can also affect respiratory activity in mitochondria and cause a breakdown of pigments that might affect carbon fixation ability in the chloroplast (Scandalios 1993 O +O 2 ) and glutathione peroxidase (GPXs: 2glu-tathione + polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)-OOH⇔glu-tathione reductase (GSSG) + PUFA + 2H 2 O), and it has been found that during acclimation, plants increase their stress-related proteins, which improve both the levels and activities of antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidants scavenge the ROS, decrease the photo-oxidation and preserve chloroplast membrane integrity and thereby help to increase the rate of photosynthesis (Waraich et al 2012).…”

Use of metribuzin, associated with different foliar fertilizers, on carrot crops

“…A number of studies have shown that the nutritional status of plants affects the ability to adapt to adverse environmental conditions (Waraich et al, 2012), meaning nutrients also act to attenuate abiotic stresses (Tahir et al, 2011) in the strutural integrity of plants and are the key to physiological processes such as photosynthesis, osmotic regulation and enzyme activation (Waraich et al, 2011).…”