Monalisa Paul, Md Shahin Hossain and Soumen Saha
Abstract
Two major and challenging abiotic stressors-drought and high temperature- damage field crops by negatively impacting their growth and development. In most cases these two stresses are typically observed to occur in combination, thereby making the effects more severe for crops. These stresses affect plants at various levels, including the cellular, tissue, and organ level, thus overall decreasing their growth and productivity. When a plant experiences drought and high-temperature stress, the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) increases. Proteolytic activity and starch hydrolysis are also increased. Long-term exposure to high-temperature stress alters membrane lipid composition, which causes leakage of plant cell membranes due to increased fluidity. Drought can also cause a reduction in cell division, enlargement, and differentiation, which affect stem elongation, root nodule formation, leaf expansion and fruit development.