Abiotic stress responses: Complexities in gene expression

Abstract

Abiotic stresses are being considered as one of the major threats to agriculture. Studies carried out by plant breeders, as well as molecular biologists, have clearly documented that the response of plants towards these stresses is multigenic in nature. Plants have been documented to have evolved delicate mechanisms to cope with these abuses. The availability of whole genome sequences and tools to analyze regulation of its "member components", at transcript and protein levels, have revolutionized the way stress biology is being currently studied. These investigations have given an insight into how extracellular signals are perceived and transmitted through signal transduction cascades in a given plant. It has been established that upon receipt and transmission of the stress signal(s), expression of a number of gene is altered, leading to stress adaptation in plant cells. Recently, studies carried out at the genome level, using microarrays, have shown the significance and contribution of these gene regulatory networks in making a given plant "stress tolerant" or "stress sensitive". Presently, our understanding of the protein-protein interactions, post translational modifications or metabolite fluxes is less developed, as compared to that of transcriptional changes. With the current technological leaps, we hope that these gaps in our knowledge will be filled soon, and thus we will be able to successfully "tame" these abiotic stresses in the future. © 2010 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. All Rights Reserved.