Climate Change and Plant Abiotic Stress Tolerance

In this ready reference, a global team of experts comprehensively cover molecular and cell biology-based approaches to the impact of increasing global temperatures on crop productivity.
The work is divided into four parts. Following an introduction to the general challenges for agriculture around the globe due to climate change, part two discusses how the resulting increase of abiotic stress factors can be dealt with. The third part then outlines the different strategies and approaches to address the challenge of climate change, and the whole is rounded off by a number of specific examples of improvements to crop productivity.
With its forward-looking focus on solutions, this book is an indispensable help for the agro-industry, policy makers and academia.

An elected fellow of numerous academies, Narendra Tuteja is currently a senior scientist at ICGEB, New Delhi, India. He has made significant contributions to crop improvement under adverse conditions, reporting the first helicase from plant and human cells and demonstrating new roles of Ku autoantigen, nucleolin and eIF4A as DNA helicases. Furthermore, he discovered novel functions of helicases, G-proteins, CBL-CIPK and LecRLK in plant stress tolerance, and PLC and MAP-kinase as effectors for G proteins. Narendra Tuteja also reported several high salinity stress tolerant genes from plants and fungi and developed salt/drought tolerant plants.

Currently assistant professor at MD University, Rohtak, India, Sarvajeet Singh Gill has made significant contributions to abiotic stress tolerance. Together with Narendra Tuteja he worked on plant helicases and discovered a novel function of plant MCM6 in salinity stress tolerance that will help improve crop production at sub-optimal conditions. A recipient of the Junior Scientist of the Year Award 2008 from the National Environmental Science Academy, Sarvajeet Gill has edited several books and has a number of research papers, review articles, and book chapters to his name.

Contents

PART I CLIMATE CHANGE

1. Climate Change: Challenges for Future Crop Adjustments
Jerry L. Hatfield et al.,

2. Carbon in bioenergy crops
Abdullah A Jaradat


PART II ABIOTIC STRESS TOLERANCE AND CLIMATE CHANGE

3. Plant environmental stress responses to survive and enhance the biomass

4. Agriculture and global climate change: response to elevated temperature and its interaction with other global change factors
Scott Heckathorn et al.,

5. The role of nitrosative signaling in response to changing climates

6. Current concepts about salinity and salinity tolerance in plants

7. Cold stress tolerance in crop plants

8. Drought-induced oxidative stress and antioxidant defense in crop plants


PART III APPROACHED FOR CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION

9. Abiotic stress-responsive small RNAs mediated plant improvement under a changing climate

10. The role of ABA-mediated transcriptional regulation in climate change

11. Transcription Factors: Modulating plant adaptation in the scenario of changing climate

12. Role of Na+/H+ antiporters in Na+ homeostasis in halophytic plants

13. Role of secondary metabolites in abiotic stress tolerance under changing climatic conditions

14. Improvements of crops through androgenesis and transgenic approaches to mitigate the challenges of climate change in sustainable agriculture

15. Bioprospection of weed species for abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants under climate change scenario: Finding the gold buried within weed species


PART IV CROP IMPROVEMENT UNDER CLIMATE CHANGE

16. Global climate change: Molecular markers and crop improvement
Brijmohan Singh Bhau,

17. Impact of climate change on productivity and thermotolerance in chickpea under rainfed agriculture

18. Climate change and heat stress tolerance in wheat

19. Micropropagation of Aloe vera for improvement and enhanced productivity

20. Climate change and organic carbon storage in forests of Bangladesh

21. Climate change vis-?-vis agricultural response in western Himalayan region

22. In vitro culture of plants of arid environment.