Stress is an adverse force or a condition, which inhibits normal functioning in plants. An average of 50% yield losses in agricultural crops are caused by abiotic factors. To attain sustainability various crop management and breeding methods are employed to reduce impact of stress. Understand more about abiotic stress not only change our understanding of current environment, but also bring a plenty of benefits like improving sustainable agriculture and human beings living standards.

1. Abiotic stress management for sustainable agriculture
Jayanta Thokdar
Roll No. : 20547
M.Sc. : 2nd Yr.
CESCRA

2. Outline
 Introduction
 Indian scenario
 Types of stress
 Plant responses
 Several stress and their managements
 Case studies
 Conclusion

3.  Stress is an adverse force or a condition, which inhibits normal
functioning in plants (Jones et.al ,1989)
 An average of 50% yield losses in agricultural crops are caused by abiotic
factors (Wang et al., 2007)
 To attain sustainability various crop management and breeding methods
are employed to reduce impact of stress
Introduction

4.  Instability in yield decreased from
13.6% to 5.5% for adoption of
resistant varieties and crop
management
 85% of coarse cereals, 83% of pulses and 70% of oilseeds grown in rainfed
condition and have productivity 1.1 t/ha against the 4.5 t/ha from irrigated
for frequent drought occurrence (NRAA, 2011)
Indian scenario
(Pulse Production Scenario, May 2013)

5. Stress
Biotic
Abiotic
Flood
Cold
Salinity
Drought
High temperature
Oxidative
Heavy metal
Types of stress

6. (Murata and Los, 2006)
o Altered gene expression
o Reduced activity of vital enzymes
o Decreased protein synthesis
o Reduction in water uptake
o Metabolic toxicity
o Growth reduction
o Premature senescence
o Reduction in productivity
Abiotic stress response in plant

7. (Hasamuzzaman et al., 2013)
Heat stress
Heat shock factors (HSF) produce in heat stress and provide tolerance to plants

8.  From Arabidopsis thaliana hsp101 (Athsp101) introduced in Pusa basmati 1
 45 ◦C for 3 h and then were placed at 28 ◦C
Untransformed (C2) and transgenic lines (15 and 43)

9.  Cultivar- Having high transpiring ability
 Shading- Fruit crops (citrus, tomato etc.) shaded by foliage
 Irrigation- Sprinkling of water, supplemental irrigation
 White coating- Coating on trunk and bunch for reflecting
 Sowing date- Such that sensitive stage should escape heat stress
 Seed priming – For acclimatization in stress
 Deep sowing- To escape seed emergence from hot soil
Crop management

10. Plant accumulates compatiable solutes
(proline, glycine, betaine, and sorbitol) to
maintain a low osmotic potential in plants
Ψw = Ψp + Ψs
Ψw- water potential
Ψp- Pressure potential
Ψs- Osmotic potential
Salt stress : Osmotic adjustment
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants

11. (Mahajan and Tuteja, 2005)
Expression of SOS1 has reported to improve plant salt tolerance (Shi et al., 2003)
SOS signaling

12. Rapid gain-of-function test showed protective effects of GmCHX1 in salt stress

13.  Rice (ADT43 and IR50) treated with PGPR (Pseudomonas strains PF1 and TDK1)
 To impose salt stress 100mM NaCl applied
 Results- Plant height, root length, dry weight of shoot and root increased due to
Pseudomonas strain treatment under salt stress
 Plants grown without any treatment had less growth
Rice plants treated with Pseudomonas strain TDK1

14.  Soil Reclamation
 Scraping and removal of surface soil (Qureshi et al., 2003)
 Appropriate use of ridges or beds for planting
 Planting into a pre-flooded field - San Joaquin Valley of California to
grow safflower crop on salt affected soils (Goyal et al., 1999)
 Mulching (crop residue)
 Deep Tillage (chiselling)
 Phase farming- Incorporating perennials into cropping systems
Crop management

15.  ABA interact with PYR/ RCAR
 Deactivate PP2C
 OST1 activate and phosphorylate
 KTA1 and SLAC 1
 Influx of K+ reduces and
 Efflux of Cl- mediates
(Qin et al., 2011)
Drought stress - ABA response

16. Regulated expression of E coli trehalose biosynthetic genes (otsA and otsB)
increased drought tolerance in rice
NT– non transformed
R80,A05– transgenic

17.  Deep rooted crop
 Supplemental irrigation
 Fallow system
 Conservation tillage
 Water harvesting/spreading
 Role of Potassium (M. Aslam et al, 2014)
Crop management
Furrow dike
Soil pitting

18.  Fructans help in cold tolerance (Valluru et al. 2008)
 Some Poaceae sp. accumulate fructans (Triticum, Hordeum, Avena) but
others cannot (Oryza). This reflect an evolutionary event that separated
Panicoideae (rice, sorghum, maize, etc.) from Pooidae (wheat, barley,
rye, etc.) (Ji et al. 2006)
 GABA (ϒ-amino butyric acid) act cryoprotectant in barley & wheat
(Mazzucotelli et al. 2006)
Cold stress

19. (A)Transgenic and WT plants in normal condition (B) WT and three transgenic lines after 14 d of recovery
Cold stress at 4 °C for 84h and then transferred back to normal condition for
recovery

20.  Use of hardy rootstock and protective mulch
 Introduction of windbreaks, snow trapping, transparent cover etc.
 Drainage of excess water from frozen soils and proper fertilization
Western Canadian winter wheat production-
 Develop snow-trapping techniques
 Direct seeding into standing stubble of previous crop at depth 2.5 cm
 Seeds are sown on end of August to establish before soil freezes in
November (http://www.usask.ca/agriculture/plantsci/winter_cereals)
Crop management

21. 1. Hypoxia: Reduction in available O2 become a limiting factor for ATP
production
2. Anoxia: ATP is only produced through glycolysis, as no more O2 is
available
 During flood stress ethylene accumulates in submerged tissues
helps in formation of arenchyma which reduces hypoxia
Flooding stress

22.  Two ethylene responsive factor (ERF) - SNORKEL1 (SK1) and
SNORKEL2 (SK2)
 It could boost production of rice in Asia and Africa (Motoyuki Ashikari, 2009)
Continuous flood condition- Deep water rice
Deepwater rice
Non-deepwater rice
Transcriptional response
No transcriptional response
SNORKEL1 & 2
Flooding
Flooding Non-deepwater rice
does not have these
genes!

23. Expression of Sub1A confers growth restriction and survival in submergence
(Fukao et al., 2011)
Flash flooding

24.  Draining excessive stagnating water around root system
 Spray of growth retardant of 500 ppm cycocel
 Nipping terminal buds (as in cotton)
 Foliar spray of 100 ppm salicylic acid
 Nitrogen fertilisation
Laser guided mole drainer
Crop management

25.  Phytoremediation of soils using plant species with high metal uptake
capacity such as Brassica species
 In a study, shown that two transgenic cotton cultivars (J208 and Z905)
and their hybrid line (ZD14) could effectively uptake and sequestrate Cr
in dead parts of the plants, such as vacuole and cell wall
(M. K. Daud et al., 2014)
Heavy metal - Stress

26. Sequestration
Uptake
Chelation
Trafficking
Vacuole Plastid
Golgi
Metal ion
Transporter
Chelater
Heavy metal tolerance
(Clemens, Planta, 2001, 212: 475)

27.  Oxidative Stress is a type of damage caused by reactive oxygen
species (ROS)
 ROS are free radicals ( O2-1, O2º, OH- etc.) represent a class of
molecules derived from metabolism of oxygen
 Free radicals destroy cellular membranes, enzymes and DNA
 Anti-oxidants (for example superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase,
glutathione reductase or ascorbate peroxidase) destroy ROS
Oxidative stress

28. SOD-1
Pusa Basmati-1Avicennia marina

29.  Rice variety- ZH11
 OsLEA3-2 from Arabidopsis introduced into
 One month old seedlings of ZH11 treated with 200 mM NaCl and 25% PEG-
6000 or 400 mM mannitol respectively to impose salt stress
 To impose drought stress one month seedlings grow at 28°C for 20 days.
Then irrigated with water

30. (A) 5 d or 2 weeks of growth in control, (B) 5 d of growth in water containing 10% or 20% PEG, 100 or 200
mM NaCl, or 10 µM ABA (C) 2w of growth in water containing 10% or 20% PEG, 100 or 200 mM NaCl, or 10
µM ABA, (D) 2 weeks of salt stress on root and (E) 2 weeks of salt stress on shoot length of rice
WT, wild type
L10,L20,L30- transgenic line
(A) (B) (C)
(D) (E)

31. (A)One month old seedlings of wild type cultivar and transgenic plants. (B) Treated with drought stress
(without irrigation) for 18 days. (C) then irrigated with water and grown for 10 days. (D) Spikes from
survived ZH11 and transgenic line L10. (E) Survival ratio of the rice plants. (F) Grain number per spike.

32. Several achievements
 Identification of micro-organisms confer abiotic stress tolerance-
 Brome mosaic virus- Drought tolerance in rice (Marquez et ai., 2007)
 Development of transgenic plants through genetic engineering-
 Choline dehydrogenase from E. Coli- Drought stress in transgenic
maize (DH4866) (Quan et al., 2004)
 Identification of metabolites and hormones provide stress tolerance-
 Abscisic acid, Jasmoic acid, salicylic acid- Salinity, cold stress

33. Conclusion
 Much efforts made by researchers and scientists in various fields to
identify various resistant genes and managing cropping techniques
 Study of phenomics is best way to figure out what plants will do under
certain circumstances
 Understand more about abiotic stress not only change our
understanding of current environment, but also bring a plenty of
benefits like improving sustainable agriculture and human beings living
standards

34. THANKS
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but
the one most responsive to change (Charles R. Darwin)