Abstract
Biotic and abiotic stresses in crops are a major hurdle in attaining potential yield worldwide. Finding an approach to sustain high yields of crop plants under biotic and abiotic stresses is an important goal of agriculture researchers and stakeholders alike. Among the abiotic stresses, drought, salinity, temperature and heavy metal accumulation are the major environmental stresses, which adversely affect plant growth and productivity. In addition, biotic stresses primarily, plant diseaseses are a significant constraint to the production of about 25 important food and fiber crops. Changing climate compounds these adverse effects of stresses on crops. To cope with biotic and abiotic stress it is of paramount significance to understand plant responses to these stresses that disturb the homeostatic equilibrium at cellular and molecular level in order to identify a common mechanism for multiple stress tolerance at least in the case of abiotic stresses. An integrated systems approach is essential in the study of complex quantitative traits governing tolerance to multiple biotic and abiotic stresses. A detailed account of specially abiotic stresses and combating strategies to effectively counter them are discussed in this chapter.
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Maheswari, M., Yadav, S.K., Shanker, A.K., Kumar, M.A., Venkateswarlu, B. (2012). Overview of Plant Stresses: Mechanisms, Adaptations and Research Pursuit. In: Venkateswarlu, B., Shanker, A., Shanker, C., Maheswari, M. (eds) Crop Stress and its Management: Perspectives and Strategies. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2220-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2220-0_1
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