Seed priming sets in motion activities involved in seed germination, such as respiration, endosperm weakening and seed reserve (starch) degradation, which facilitate the transition of quiescent dry seeds into germinating state and increase the germination potential and imposes
abiotic stress to germinating seeds to stimulate stress responses (e.g., activation of ROS scavenging systems and accumulation of stress response proteins), hence inducing cross-tolerance (Li et al., 2013; Chen and Arora 2012).
Their topics include emerging trends of Z20/AN1 zinc-finger proteins in improving rice productivity under
abiotic stress, technological developments for
abiotic stress in rice, the assessment of aromatic content and in-vitro responses in traditional Indian rice varieties, agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation practices for improving rice quality and production, and the role of genetic engineering and biotechnology as advanced molecular tools and trends in the quality improvement of rice crops.
Herrera-Estrella, the President's Distinguished Professor of Plant Genomics, will serve as the director of the Center for Functional Genomic of
Abiotic Stress, which will examine how plants adapt to thrive in the presence of environmental stresses such as extreme heat and cold, drought and in the presence of brackish water sources.
Its concentration depends on the species, cultivars, plant organs and phenological stage, also varying according to the type of
abiotic stress and its severity (Claussen, 2005; Ashraf & Foolad, 2007; Mafakheri et al., 2010; Kavi Kishor & Sreenivasulu, 2014).
If not well managed,
abiotic stress according to the researcher can cause a yield loss of 17 percent to 50 percent.
Soil salinity, characterized by a high concentration of soluble salts, affects crop productivity although some indigenous crops have some level of tolerance to this
abiotic stress. Soil salinity is a broad term which refers to three types of agriculturally problematic soils.
Although many studies have suggested the involvement of [C.sub.2][H.sub.2] zinc finger protein in
abiotic stress responses, their precise biological function and molecular mechanism remain to be further elucidated.
Freshly, DOF proteins were described to be involved in biotic and
abiotic stress responses, perhaps via the stimulation of various stress-responsive genes (Gupta et al., 2015; Sasaki et al., 2015; Corrales et al., 2014).
The technique holds the potential for producing plants with mutations linked to other disciplines of science such as disease resistance, biofuel production, synthetic biology, phytoremediation and
abiotic stress tolerance.