Identification of candidate genes for drought stress tolerance

Abstract

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses that threaten the growth and yield of plants. Drought tolerance is one mechanism by which plants can resist drought stress. In plants, the ability to tolerate drought is programmed at the genetic level. Drought response in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana was a subject of extensive dissection especially at the molecular level. With the recent biotechnological advances in sequencing techniques, the genome of many important crops such as rice, maize, and barley has been sequenced. Indeed, genome sequencing of these crops paved the way for transcription profiling under different environmental stresses including drought. Transcription profiling using microarrays is the number one choice for the identification of genes for drought tolerance. Identification of candidate genes for drought tolerance is a basic step towards the improvement of drought-tolerant crops either through molecular breeding or a transgenic approach. In this chapter, an effort has been made for the identification and function of candidate genes for drought tolerance in the model plant A. thaliana as well as some other major crops.