Being sessile organisms, plants are frequently exposed to various environmental stresses that cause several physiological disorders and even death. Oxidative stress is one of the common consequences of abiotic stress in plants, which is caused by excess generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Sometimes ROS production exceeds the capacity of antioxidant defense systems, which leads to oxida...

Plants subjected to abiotic stresses synthesize secondary metabolites with potential application in the functional foods, dietary supplements, pharmaceutical, cosmetics and agrochemical markets. This approach can be extended to horticultural crops. This review describes previous reports regarding the effect of different postharvest abiotic stresses on the accumulation of phenolic compounds. Lik...

Abiotic stress and climate change is the major concern for plant growth and crop yield. Abiotic stresses lead to enhanced accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) consequently resulting in cellular damage and major losses in crop yield. One of the major scavengers of ROS is ascorbate (AA) which acts as first line of defense against external oxidants. An enzyme named ascorbate oxidase (AAO)...

The response to drought stress is a complicated process involving stress sensing, intracellular signaltransduction, and the execution of a cellular response. Transcription factors play important roles in the signaling pathways including abiotic stress. In the present study a rice NF-YA transcription factor gene was partially characterized following dehydration. Disrupting the gene via a T...

Photosynthesis is sensitive to environmental stress and must be efficiently modulated in response to abiotic stress. However, the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. Here we report that ARABIDOPSIS THALIANA HOMEOBOX 17 (ATHB17), an Arabidopsis HD-Zip transcription factor, regulated the expression of a number of photosynthesis associated nuclear genes (PhANGs) involved in the light re...

Abiotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and agricultural productivity. According to the current climate prediction models, crop plants will face a greater number of environmental stresses, which are likely to occur simultaneously in the future. So it is very urgent to breed broad-spectrum tolerant crops in order to meet an increasing demand for food productivity due to global population ...

Abiotic stresses are major environmental factors that affect agricultural productivity worldwide. NAC transcription factors play pivotal roles in abiotic stress signaling in plants. As a staple crop, wheat production is severely constrained by abiotic stresses whereas only a few NAC transcription factors have been characterized functionally. To promote the application of NAC genes in wheat impr...

Aflatoxins are carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced mainly by Aspergillus flavus during infection of susceptible crops, such as corn. A. flavus infection and subsequent aflatoxin contamination is a serious issue in the southern US, especially during a drought. Field studies demonstrate that reduction of drought stress by irrigation reduces aflatoxin contamination in corn and peanut. Drou...