Drought coping strategies in cotton: increased crop per drop

Abstract

SummaryThe growth and yield of many crops, including cotton, are affected by water deficit. Cotton has evolved drought specific as well as general morpho‐physiological, biochemical and molecular responses to drought stress, which are discussed in this review. The key physiological responses against drought stress in cotton, including stomata closing, root development, cellular adaptations, photosynthesis, abscisic acid (ABA) and jasmonic acid (JA) production and reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, have been identified by researchers. Drought stress induces the expression of stress‐related transcription factors and genes, such as ROS scavenging, ABA or mitogen‐activated protein kinases (MAPK) signalling genes, which activate various drought‐related pathways to induce tolerance in the plant. It is crucial to elucidate and induce drought‐tolerant traits via quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis, transgenic approaches and exogenous application of substances. The current review article highlights the natural as well as engineered drought tolerance strategies in cotton.

UPLC‐HRMS‐based untargeted metabolic profiling reveals changes in chickpea (Cicer arietinum) metabolome following long‐term drought stress

“…Asterisk represents significant difference in mz/rt peak between sensitive (G1) and tolerant (G2) varieties under the drought condition at a specific time point of samplingPereira, 2016;Cielniak, Filek, & Cielniak, 2006;J. Li et al, 2017;Luo, Zhang, & Zhang, 2016;Ullah, Sun, Yang, & Zhang, 2017;Zhou et al, 2017). Our results are aligned with other reported studies and demonstrated that the experimental condition separated the expression of these traits between the tolerant and sensitive varieties.…”

“…However, the sensitive variety showed greater F v / F m reduction than the tolerant variety. Some other studies also demonstrated a significant reduction of photosynthetic capacity and chlorophyll content due to stress condition (Basu, Ramegowda, Kumar, & Pereira, ; Cielniak, Filek, & Cielniak, ; J. Li et al, ; Luo, Zhang, & Zhang, ; Ullah, Sun, Yang, & Zhang, ; Zhou et al, ). Our results are aligned with other reported studies and demonstrated that the experimental condition separated the expression of these traits between the tolerant and sensitive varieties.…”

A novel cotton WRKY gene, GhWRKY6‐like, improves salt tolerance by activating the ABA signaling pathway and scavenging of reactive oxygen species

“…Under stresses, stomata closure and a low transpiration rate helps plants to withstand harsh environmental conditions. Waxy leaf cuticles are another adaptation to reduce the transpiration rate (Ullah et al 2017), while our results show that the number of stomata may be higher and/or opened in TRV:GhWRKY6-like plants which reveal its positive role in reducing the transpiration rate.…”

“…The sucrose nonfermenting 1-related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2s) are autoactivated when they dissociate from PP2Cs. Activated SnRK2s phosphorylates downstream targets and regulates many stress-related genes to enhance osmotic stress tolerance (Ullah et al 2017). We hypothesized that overexpressing GhWRKY6-like enhanced osmotic stress RT-PCR analysis confirmed that GhWRKY6-like has been silenced in TRV:GhWRKY6-like-cotton-seedlings successfully through VIGS.…”

“…The sucrose nonfermenting 1‐related protein kinase 2 (SnRK2s) are autoactivated when they dissociate from PP2Cs. Activated SnRK2s phosphorylates downstream targets and regulates many stress‐related genes to enhance osmotic stress tolerance (Ullah et al ). We hypothesized that overexpressing GhWRKY6‐like enhanced osmotic stress tolerance in transgenic lines via interacting with ABA signaling pathway and osmotic stress‐related genes, as we found from the relative expression level of AtABF4 , AtABI5 , AtMYC2, AtSOS2, AtRD29a and AtRD29b .…”