Salicylic Acid: Its Role in Temperature Stress Tolerance

Around the globe, temperature stresses damage plant growth and developmental processes through disturbing plant metabolism by assembling reactive oxygen species (ROS) that results in oxidative bursts. In response, the plants adopt various approaches to overcome the negative affect of temperature stresses. Salicylic acid is an endogenous signalling molecule which helps in modulating plants metabolic and physiological responses during temperature stresses through cross communication between chemical fluxes. As a phenolic compound, it helps in overcoming temperature, drought, and salinity stresses in plants through a complex metabolomics pool. This chapter focusses on the understanding of the key role of SA in thermo-tolerance induction in plants. It further gives an insight into the different approaches to regulate plant's responses for high, chilling, and freezing temperature tolerance.