Plant signaling under abiotic stress environment

Abstract

Abiotic stress is one of the major factors that negatively affect crops yield; therefore, development of stress-tolerant crops is essential for future food security. The stress stimuli are perceived by the plasma membrane and different signals get activated. In response to the stress, expression of many genes gets altered which plays an important role in the transmission of the signals. Various chemicals are also responsible for these signals like calcium (Ca2+), nitric oxide (NO), sugars, abscisic acid (ABA), brassinosteroids (BRs), ethylene, jasmonates (JA), salicylic acid (SA), and auxins. Ca2+acts as a secondary messenger to perceive the environmental stimuli and transduce them into downstream effectors in order to bring about changes leading to adaptations to stressful conditions or developmental effects. The phytohormones have a role in tolerance and adaptations to plants under abiotic stress. During abiotic stress, cross talk between different signaling pathways is very common. In the present review, we elucidated the role of these chemicals in plant signaling under abiotic stress. The signal transduction pathway involving mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) under abiotic stress is also discussed.