Molecular and genetic bases of heat stress responses in crop plants and breeding for increased resilience and productivity

• Published in: Journal of experimental botany Vol. 71; no. 13; pp. 3780 - 3802
• Main Authors: Janni, Michela, Gullì, Mariolina, Maestri, Elena, Marmiroli, Marta, Valliyodan, Babu, Nguyen, Henry T, Marmiroli, Nelson
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: UK Oxford University Press 26.06.2020
• Subjects: Crops, Agricultural - genetics; Gene Editing; Heat-Shock Response - genetics; Plant Breeding; Review Papers; Stress, Physiological; heat stress; global warming; omics; Breeding; food crops; food security; cultivated plants; phenomics; climate change
• ISSN: 0022-0957; 1460-2431; 1460-2431
• DOI: 10.1093/jxb/eraa034

This review provides a wide-ranging assessment of approaches to reduce the impact of heat stress on food crops. Abstract To ensure the food security of future generations and to address the challenge of the ‘no hunger zone’ proposed by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), crop production must be doubled by 2050, but environmental stresses are counteracting this goal. Heat stress in particular is affecting agricultural crops more frequently and more severely. Since the discovery of the physiological, molecular, and genetic bases of heat stress responses, cultivated plants have become the subject of intense research on how they may avoid or tolerate heat stress by either using natural genetic variation or creating new variation with DNA technologies, mutational breeding, or genome editing. This review reports current understanding of the genetic and molecular bases of heat stress in crops together with recent approaches to creating heat-tolerant varieties. Research is close to a breakthrough of global relevance, breeding plants fitter to face the biggest challenge of our time.