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  • Review Article
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Genetic mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance that translate to crop yield stability

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 16, pages 237–251 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Key Points

  • Climate change, environmental degradation and population growth present major challenges to global food security.

  • Crop yields are destabilized by suboptimal growth conditions such as floods, droughts, air pollution, nutrient deficiency and toxic ion exposure.

  • Effective abiotic stress adaptation loci usually provide environment-specific solutions that depend on the timing, severity and duration of the stress.

  • To date, most of the characterized loci that improve abiotic stress tolerance without a yield penalty encode transcription factors or transporters.

  • Genetic variation in abiotic stress tolerance is often associated with allelic variation, gene duplication and/or gene neofunctionalization.

  • Improved yield stability has been traditionally attained through selective breeding. The precise identification of the specific genetic determinants of stress tolerance accelerates the marker-assisted introgression of naturally varying genes into popular varieties.

  • Characterization of the underlying genes and abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms that sustain reasonable yields under adverse conditions facilitates the translation of solutions between species.

  • Increased harnessing of natural genetic variation and biotechnological solutions, coupled with effective agronomic practices, is essential to provide necessary increases in crop yield stability to feed the human population.

Abstract

Crop yield reduction as a consequence of increasingly severe climatic events threatens global food security. Genetic loci that ensure productivity in challenging environments exist within the germplasm of crops, their wild relatives and species that are adapted to extreme environments. Selective breeding for the combination of beneficial loci in germplasm has improved yields in diverse environments throughout the history of agriculture. An effective new paradigm is the targeted identification of specific genetic determinants of stress adaptation that have evolved in nature and their precise introgression into elite varieties. These loci are often associated with distinct regulation or function, duplication and/or neofunctionalization of genes that maintain plant homeostasis.

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Figure 1: Flooding survival in rice.
Figure 2: Deeper rooting in rice for drought tolerance.
Figure 3: HKT1 gene and functional variation associated with salt tolerance in the cereals wheat and rice.
Figure 4: Genetic basis for high Al3+ and low Pi tolerance mechanisms.
Figure 5: Cold tolerance in temperate cereals is coordinated by VRN1 at the FR1 locus and by CBF genes at the FR2 locus.

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Acknowledgements

Research in the authors' laboratories is supported by the US National Science Foundation IOS-121626 and IOS-1238243 (to J.B.-S.); and the US Department of Agriculture, US National Institute of Food and Agriculture – Agriculture and Food Research Initiative Grant no. 2011–04015 (to J.B.-S.), and nos. 2009–04824 and 2009–02130 (to M.V.M.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany and Plant Pathology, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Michael V. Mickelbart

  2. Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, West Lafayette, 47907, Indiana, USA

    Paul M. Hasegawa

  3. Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, Center for Plant Cell Biology, University of California, Riverside, 92521, California, USA

    Julia Bailey-Serres

  4. Institute of Environmental Biology, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CH, The Netherlands

    Julia Bailey-Serres

Authors
  1. Michael V. Mickelbart
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Correspondence to Julia Bailey-Serres.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary information S1 (table)

Examples of increased abiotic stress survival, biomass or yield – from the (trans)gene to crop in the field (PDF 345 kb)

PowerPoint slides

Glossary

Germplasm

A collection (either wild or cultivated) of diverse genetic material.

Plasticity

The ability of an organism to modify its phenotype (for example, metabolism or development) in response to the environment.

Edaphic conditions

Conditions related to soil, including physical (for example, texture and drainage) and chemical (for example, pH and elemental content) properties.

Transient stress

An aberrant change in the environment lasting for a short period of time — for example, high vapour pressure deficit at midday and temporary flooding.

Chronic stress

A suboptimal environmental condition lasting for a substantial portion of the life cycle of the plant — for example, salt accumulation in fertilized fields and season-long water stress.

Stress tolerance

The ability to maintain metabolic function, growth and/or yield despite the presence of an abiotic stress, achieved via mechanisms such as ion homeostasis and osmotic adjustment.

Stress avoidance

Mechanisms whereby an organism is able to alter or halt the effect of a stress by mechanisms such as ion exclusion, stomatal closure and leaf movements.

Acclimation

A short-term (typically within a generation) modification at the genetic, cellular and/or organismal levels that allows a plant to survive an aberrant change in the surrounding environment.

Adaptation

A long-term (typically over generations) modification at the genetic level that allows a plant to survive a change in its environment. The ability to quickly acclimate (for example, to transient stress) can be an adaptive trait.

Monophyletic origin

Organisms descended from a common ancestor.

Convergent evolution

Evolution via independent paths to a similar outcome, such as a solution to an abiotic constraint.

Yield stability

The maintenance of crop yield, despite suboptimal growth conditions, such as the presence of an abiotic stress.

Quantitative trait locus

(QTL). A region of chromosome that determines a trait that is quantitative in nature.

Allelic variation

Distinction in the coding sequence or regulatory regions of an allele (form of a gene at the same genetic locus).

Copy number variation

(CNV). Regions of chromosome that differ because of duplication or deletion of DNA that usually includes complete genes. CNV results in distinct haplotypes at a chromosomal region and is often associated with higher or lower expression owing to gene copy number duplication or deletion, respectively.

Neofunctionalization

Evolution of a duplicated gene that results in the distinct function and/or regulation of a formerly paralogous gene or protein.

Introgressed

Pertaining to the transfer of a genetic determinant from a donor genotype to a recipient genotype by repeated backcross hybridization. It can be accelerated by the use of molecular markers for the donor chromosomal region, as well as markers surrounding that region and the other chromosomes of the recipient genotype.

Landraces

Locally adapted varieties used by farmers.

Quiescence

A reduction in growth associated with the conservation of energy reserves.

Aerenchyma

Hollow conduits that form within roots and stems to facilitate the exchange of gases. There are multiple processes of aerenchyma development.

Guard cell

One of a pair of cells within the epidermal layer of some organs (primarily leaves) that are shaped to form a closable pore (stoma) that enables the exchange of gases between the plant and the atmosphere.

Stay-green phenotype

Phenotype of delayed senescence through the grain-filling period that is associated with delayed chlorophyll degradation.

Rhizosphere

Soil and associated microorganisms in the narrow region surrounding the root system.

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Mickelbart, M., Hasegawa, P. & Bailey-Serres, J. Genetic mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance that translate to crop yield stability. Nat Rev Genet 16, 237–251 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg3901

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