Geoscience Reference
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and adapt to environmental stresses at the cellular, biochemical,
physiological, and molecular levels.
Genetic technologies have revealed many plant genes and
their downstream gene activation which are involved in the
stress gene expression, stress signal transduction pathways and
stress tolerance. These approaches elucidated different mecha-
nisms to fine tune the plant gene expression and the ability
to cope in an appropriate manner to environmental stresses.
During the change in environmental conditions, the defence
against these stresses is a large reprogramming of gene expres-
sion through regulation of transcription (Figure 13.1). The devel-
opment of microarray and high-throughput technologies led to
the discovery of several hundred to thousands of genes in plants
with altered expression in response to climate changes. Genes
with altered expression during climate change stresses are often
important for adaptation to stress; transgenic plants overexpress
such genes that can have increased change stress tolerance.
Climate change or environmental stresses have a profound
influence on the plant growth and productivity in a variety
of ways. The potential impacts of climate change have been
examined in many crops such as groundnut, rice, wheat,
soybean, maize, many vegetables and fruits (Schlenker and
Roberts, 2009; Singh et al., 2009, 2014; Hao et al., 2010;
Mirade Orduna, 2010; Moretti et al., 2010; Waterer et al., 2010;
Climate change/environmental
stress
High winds
Drought
Salinity
Water-level reduction
Te mperature rising
Cold
Soil fertility
We eds
Fungi
Bacteria
Viruses
Parasites
Insects
Abiotic stress
Biotic stress
Genomics
re-programming
Gene expression
Chromatin modification
Transcription initiation
RNAI/miRNA/siRNA
Post-transcription regulation
Stress reframe-work
FIGURe 13.1
(
See colour insert.
) A model for abiotic and biotic stress signalling
leads to genomics reprogramming during climate change or environmental stress.
