Drought stress in plants: A review on morphological characteristics and pigments composition

Abstract

Plant growth and productivity is adversely affected by nature's wrath in the form of various biotic and abiotic stress factors. Water deficit is one of the major abiotic stresses, which adversely affects crop growth and yield. These changes are mainly related to altered metabolic functions, one of those is either loss of or reduced synthesis of photosynthetic pigments. This results in declined light harvesting and generation of reducing powers, which are a source of energy for dark reactions of photosynthesis. These changes in the amounts of photosynthetic pigments are closely associated to plant biomass yield. This review describes some aspects of drought induced changes in morphological, physiological and pigments composition in higher plants.