“Omics”: A Gateway Towards Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Abiotic stresses like temperature, drought, salinity, etc. bring about severe changes in the growth and development of plants which lead to excessive amassing of secondary metabolites. These environmental stresses pose as a major constraint to the yield and quality of crop plants on field. Abiotic stress response in plants is an intricate process involving multitude of stress-related genes. At the molecular level, plants respond to abiotic stresses by altering the transcriptional activity of the stress response-related genes. Activation of the stress-inducible genes initiates enzyme synthesis responsible for the synthesis of various osmoprotectants. Although many efforts have been made to elucidate the mechanism of adaptation of plants to stressful conditions, yet the utilization of the acquired knowledge for improving crop performance and productivity under abiotic stress hasn’t been achieved because of the intricate genetics involved in stress tolerance mechanisms. Over the last few decades, a number of diversified and promising “omics” technologies have emerged. These “omics”-based approaches have proved persuasive for elucidating how the modifications in the DNA, RNA, proteins and the metabolites within a plant are responsible for instigating response towards abiotic stresses.