| Popis: |
Rice is a staple food consumed by almost half of the world’s population. However, in a natural environment, like any other plant, rice is exposed to various abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, and high temperature, which in turn affect its yield. Therefore, to meet the demand of the world’s growing population, it is imperative for scientists to come up with novel strategies of combating these abiotic stresses. Over the years, transgenic rice showing improved performance under stresses such as salinity, drought, and cold have been developed using genetic engineering approaches. Additionally, scientists have also developed rice that has higher nutrient content such as, golden rice, folate-biofortified rice, iron-fortified rice, and zinc-fortified rice. In this chapter, we discuss how plants respond to heat, cold, salinity, drought, and flooding stress with an emphasis on the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms of stress tolerance. Further, we also present a few representative success stories where attempts have been made towards improving the nutritional value or for enhancing stress tolerance in rice. This information may help in promoting the interdisciplinary studies designed to assess the stress-responsive genes and their role under various abiotic stresses along with a target of improving the nutritional value in rice. |
