Heat stress and it’s tolerance in wheat

Abstract

The rise in world temperature has led to remarkable changes in global climate patterns, eventually devastating the crops. Climate change has led to the emergence of various abiotic factors which has decreased the crop’s productivity. Heat stress has a great role in crop production reduction among various abiotic factors. Rise in temperature at different stages of crop growth beyond threshold level has caused significant crop damage remarkably in wheat. Heat stress causes immense disturbance to the morphological, physiological, and biochemical processes of crops, eventually leading to a decrease in wheat yield. Each degree increase in global temperature has led to a 6% decline in the wheat yield. Heat stress causes a significant decrease in the plant height, photosynthesis rate, dehiscence of the anther, floret fertility, kernel weight, CO2 absorption and assimilation, photosynthesis activity, and chlorophyll content, and starch synthesis in endosperm. Among other stages of the wheat crop, the flowering stage is so prone to heat stress which decreases the seed set. The wheat crop has several tolerance mechanisms to overcome heat stress such as leaf senescence, canopy temperature depression, and heat shock protein. The effect of heat stress is minimized by the production of heat shock protein. Various biochemical and molecular approaches can aid in understanding the effects created by heat stress.

Keywords

• Heat stress
• leaf senescence
• heat shock protein
• anti-oxidant defense
• Omics
• Agriculture & Environmental Sciences