EFFECT OF WATER STRESS ON MORPHOLOGICAL, PHYSIOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND MOLECULAR RESPONSES OF PLANTS: A REVIEWNilakshi Borah, Prodeep Kumar Borua and Siddhartha Proteem SaikiaAbstract Drought is the most important abiotic factor which results in decrease in plant growth and plant productivity. Every plant is exposed either directly or indirectly to drought stress which triggers a wide variety of plant responses. Drought stress seriously affects on plant physiology, biochemistry and molecular mechanism of the plants. Plant develops some mechanism to cope up with the changes. Plant also uses morphological, physiological and biochemical adaptation to mitigate the effect of drought stress. Degree of stress mainly depends on which mechanism plant uses to cope up with the challenge. However, the negative impacts caused by drought is expected, particularly in the case of forest species, because climate change is causing longer and more frequent periods of water deficit, reducing the viability of areas for planting trees. From ecophysiology to cell metabolism, there were several studies on effect of drought. This review is focused mainly on information about the effects of drought on plant growth, physiology as well as plant nutrients and gene expression studies. |