Skip to main content
ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stoneville, Mississippi » Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #341055
Research Project: Umbrella Project for Food Safety

Location: Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit

Title: Abscisic acid and abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants

Author
item SAH, SAROJ - Mississippi State University
item REDDY, KAMBHAM - Mississippi State University
item LI, JIAXU - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/13/2016
Publication Date: 5/4/2016
Citation: Sah, S.K., Reddy, K.R., Li, J. 2016. Abscisic acid and abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants. Frontiers in Plant Science. 7(571):1-26.

Interpretive Summary: Abscisic acid is an important hormone (regulatory substance) involved in regulating plant responses to abiotic stresses such as drought, cold and salinity. The knowledge of abscisic acid being a key regulator of abiotic stress responses has been utilized for developing crops with enhances tolerance under stress conditions. Molecular manipulation of abscisic acid synthesis or signaling (hormonal sensing) via genetic engineering has been done in different crop plants for improved stress tolerance.

Technical Abstract: biotic stress is a primary threat to fulfill the demand of agricultural production to feed the world in coming decades. Plants reduce growth and development process during stress conditions, which ultimately affect the yield. In stress conditions, plants develop various stress mechanism to face the magnitude of stress challenges, although that is not enough to protect them. Therefore, many strategies have been used to produce abiotic stress tolerance crop plants, among them, abscisic acid (ABA) phytohormone engineering could be one of the methods of choice. ABA is an isoprenoid phytohormone, which regulates various physiological processes ranging from stomatal opening to protein storage and provides adaptation to many stresses like drought, salt, and cold stresses. ABA is also called an important messenger that acts as the signaling mediator for regulating the adaptive response of plants to different environmental stress conditions. In this review, we will discuss the role of ABA in response to abiotic stress at the molecular level and ABA signaling. The review also deals with the effect of ABA in respect to gene expression.