Small chemical molecules regulating the phytohormone signalling alter the plant's physiological processes to improve stress adaptation, growth and productivity.

Small chemical molecules are attractive agents for improving the plant processes associated with plant growth and stress tolerance. Recent advances in chemical biology and structure-assisted drug discovery approaches have opened up new avenues in plant biology to discover new drug-like molecules to improve plant processes for sustained food production. Several compounds targeting phytohormone biosynthesis or signalling cascades were designed to alter plant physiological mechanisms.

Decoding stomatal characteristics regulating water use efficiency at leaf and plant scales in rice genotypes.

Stomatal traits in rice genotypes affect water use efficiency. Low-frequency small-size stomata correlate with whole plant efficiency, while low-frequency large-size stomata show intrinsic efficiency and responsiveness to vapour pressure deficit. Leaf surface and the patterning of the epidermal layer play a vital role in determining plant growth.

Phenotyping and metabolome analysis reveal the role of AdoMetDC and Di19 genes in determining acquired tolerance to drought in rice.

Water-saving attempts for rice cultivation often reduce yields. Maintaining productivity under drought is possible when rice genotypes are bred with improved metabolism and spikelet fertility. Although attempts have been made to introgress water mining and water use efficiency traits, combining acquired tolerance traits (ATTs), that is, specific traits induced or upregulated to better tolerate severe stress, appears equally important.

Comprehensive analysis of physiological and metabolomic responses to drought reveals specific modulation of acquired tolerance mechanisms in rice.

Mild stresses induce "acquired tolerance traits" (ATTs) that provide tolerance when stress becomes severe. Here, we identified the genetic variability in ATTs among a panel of rice germplasm accessions and demonstrated their relevance in protecting growth and productivity under water-limited conditions. Diverse approaches, including physiological screens, association mapping and metabolomics, were adopted and revealed 43 significant marker-trait associations.

Novel small molecules targeting bZIP23 TF improve stomatal conductance and photosynthesis under mild drought stress by regulating ABA.

Drought-induced abscisic acid (ABA) accumulation plays a key role in plant water relations by regulating stomatal movements. Although ABA helps in the survival of the plants, reduced carbon gain affects plant productivity. To improve crop productivity under mild drought stress conditions, it is necessary to manipulate ABA responses.

Metabolome profiling reveals impact of water limitation on grain filling in contrasting rice genotypes.

Drought significantly decreases crop productivity, especially in high water consuming crops like rice. Grain filling is one of the important critical growth phases in rice and drought during this phase leads to significant reduction in yield. In this study, a comparison was made between IR64 (drought susceptible) and Apo (drought tolerant) rice genotypes to capture the response to water limitation (50% field capacity (FC)) compared with the control (100%FC) during grain filling.

Induction of Acquired Tolerance Through Gradual Progression of Drought Is the Key for Maintenance of Spikelet Fertility and Yield in Rice Under Semi-irrigated Aerobic Conditions.

Plants have evolved several adaptive mechanisms to cope with water-limited conditions. While most of them are through constitutive traits, certain "acquired tolerance" traits also provide significant improvement in drought adaptation. Most abiotic stresses, especially drought, show a gradual progression of stress and hence provide an opportunity to upregulate specific protective mechanisms collectively referred to as "acquired tolerance" traits.

Acquired Traits Contribute More to Drought Tolerance in Wheat Than in Rice.

Drought tolerance is governed by constitutive and acquired traits. Combining them has relevance for sustaining crop productivity under drought. Mild levels of stress induce specific mechanisms that protect metabolism when stress becomes severe.

Corrigendum: Introgression of Physiological Traits for a Comprehensive Improvement of Drought Adaptation in Crop Plants.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fchem.2018.

Introgression of Physiological Traits for a Comprehensive Improvement of Drought Adaptation in Crop Plants.

Burgeoning population growth, industrial demand, and the predicted global climate change resulting in erratic monsoon rains are expected to severely limit fresh water availability for agriculture both in irrigated and rainfed ecosystems. In order to remain food and nutrient secure, agriculture research needs to focus on devising strategies to save water in irrigated conditions and to develop superior cultivars with improved water productivity to sustain yield under rainfed conditions. Recent opinions accruing in the scientific literature strongly favor the adoption of a "" crop improvement approach for increasing water productivity.

Quantification of Membrane Damage/Cell Death Using Evan's Blue Staining Technique.

Membrane damage is a hallmark of both biotic and abiotic stress responses. The membrane determines the ability of a cell to sustain altered environmental conditions and hence can be used as a biomarker to assess stress-induced cell damage or death. We present an easy, quick, cost-effective, staining and spectrophotometric method to assess membrane stability of plant cells.