Plant growth-regulating molecules as thermoprotectants: functional relevance and prospects for improving heat tolerance in food crops.

Among various abiotic stresses, heat stress is one of the most damaging, threatening plant productivity and survival all over the world. Warmer temperatures due to climatic anomalies above optimum growing temperatures have detrimental impacts on crop yield potential as well as plant distribution patterns. Heat stress affects overall plant metabolism in terms of physiology, biochemistry, and gene expression. Membrane damage, protein degradation, enzyme inactivation, and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species are some of the harmful effects of heat stress that cause injury to various cellular compartments. Although plants are equipped with various defense strategies to counteract these adversities, their defensive means are not sufficient to defend against the ever-rising temperatures. Hence, substantial yield losses have been observed in all crop species under heat stress. Here, we describe the involvement of various plant growth-regulators (PGRs) (hormones, polyamines, osmoprotectants, antioxidants, and other signaling molecules) in thermotolerance, through diverse cellular mechanisms that protect cells under heat stress. Several studies involving the exogenous application of PGRs to heat-stressed plants have demonstrated their role in imparting tolerance, suggesting the strong potential of these molecules in improving the performance of food crops grown under high temperature.

GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), as a thermo-protectant, to improve the reproductive function of heat-stressed mungbean plants.

Rising global temperatures are proving to be detrimental for the agriculture. Hence, strategies are needed to induce thermotolerance in food crops to sustain the food production. GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), a non-protein amino acid, can partially protect plants from high-temperature stress. This study hypothesises that declining GABA concentrations in the cells of heat-stressed mungbean plants increases the heat-sensitivity of reproductive function. Mungbean plants were grown in a natural, outdoor environment (29.3/16.1 ± 1 °C as mean day/night temperature, 1350-1550 µmol m-2 s-1 light intensity, 60-65% as mean relative humidity) until the start of the reproductive stage. Subsequently, two temperature treatments were imposed in a controlled environment-control (35/23 °C) and heat stress (45/28 °C)-at about 800 µmol m-2 s-1 light intensity and 65-70% as mean relative humidity, until pod maturity. In heat-stressed (HS) plants, endogenous GABA concentrations in leaf and anther samples had declined by 49 and 60%, respectively, and to a much lesser degree in the plants, exogenously supplemented with 1 mM GABA. The reproductive function of GABA-treated heat-stressed plants improved significantly in terms of pollen germination, pollen viability, stigma receptivity and ovule viability, compared to untreated HS controls. In addition, GABA-treated heat-stressed plants had less damage to membranes, photosynthetic machinery (chlorophyll concentration, chlorophyll fluorescence, RuBisCO activity were functionally normal) and carbon assimilation (sucrose synthesis and its utilisation) than the untreated HS controls. Leaf water status improved significantly with GABA application, including enhanced accumulation of osmolytes such as proline and trehalose due to increase in the activities of their biosynthetic enzymes. GABA-treated heat-stressed plants produced more pods (28%) and seed weight (27%) plant-1 than the untreated controls. This study is the first to report the involvement of GABA in protecting reproductive function in mungbean under heat stress, as a result of improved leaf turgor, carbon fixation and assimilation processes, through the augmentation of several enzymes related to these physiological processes.

Securing reproductive function in mungbean grown under high temperature environment with exogenous application of proline.

Escalating temperatures are adversely impacting the production potential of various cool- and warm-season crops, such as Mungbean, therefore effective strategies are required to improve heat tolerance of various crops. Mungbean, a summer season food legume, is seriously affected at temperatures more than 35/25 °C, especially at its reproductive stage, resulting in pollen infertility to induce loss of flowers and potential pods. Proline (Pro), a well-researched stress-related molecule, has been implicated in determining pollen fertility, but its involvement in affecting reproductive function under heat stress is not reported so far. In the present study, it was hypothesised that depletion of endogenous Pro in reproductive components of the flowers of heat-stressed Mungbean plants might impair the reproductive function. To test this hypothesis, Mungbean genotypes (heat tolerant and heat-sensitive), growing in outdoor environment (32.5/17.5 ±â€¯1 °C mean day/night temperature), until on the onset of flowering (30 days after sowing) were subjected to mild heat stress (MS; 40/28 °C) and high heat stress (HS; 45/33 °C), in the absence or presence of 5 mM proline treatment, applied as soil drenching and foliar spray, 2 days before imposition of heat stress. In MS plants, the endogenous Pro showed a significant increase in leaves, anthers, pollen and ovules, while in SS plants, a marked reduction was noticed. In later case, the activity of proline synthesising enzymes (pyrolline-5-carboxylate synthase and pyrroline-5-carboxylate reductase) declined severely, along with a proline catabolism enzyme (proline dehydrogenase) suggesting disruption in proline metabolism in vegetative and reproductive components. This was associated with considerable decrease in pollen germination, stigma receptivity and ovule viability in heat-stressed plants. Simultaneously, leaf tissue showed high damage to cell membranes, leaf water status, stomatal conductance and cellular respiration. Photosynthetic ability (Chlorophyll, Photo system II function), carbon fixation (RuBisCo activity) and assimilation processes (sucrose synthesis and its hydrolysis) were significantly inhibited, in heat-stressed (HS) plants, which impacted the pod number, pod and seed weight per plant. Pro treatment, especially to HS plants resulted in appreciable increase in its endogenous concentration in vegetative and reproductive parts, which significantly improved the pollen fertility as well as stigma and ovule function. At the same time, stress damage to leaves was reduced significantly, leaf water status and chlorophyll were significantly higher, as a result the carbon fixation and assimilation capacity improved notably to increase the pod set, filled pod number, pod weight and seed weight per plants, suggesting a vital role of proline in enhancing the thermo-tolerance. The effects of Pro treatment were more pronounced in heat-sensitive genotype.