2026· BIO Web of Conferences· 0 citations· 51 references
Abstract
Drought increasingly constrains global wheat production, reducing photosynthetic capacity, accelerating senescence, and shortening grain-filling periods. This review analyses current knowledge on physiological responses (root architecture, reactive oxygen species dynamics, photosystem stability, and abscisic acid signaling) and evaluates agronomic, chemical, nutritional, and genetic countermeasures that aim to protect yield under water deficit. We compare evidence from controlled experiments and field trials to assess which interventions deliver consistent yield benefits, and we highlight trade-offs between water conservation and carbon assimilation. Root traits that access deeper soil moisture, robust antioxidant systems, and balanced hormonal regulation emerge as key biological targets; meanwhile, seed priming, targeted nutrient management, and selected biochemical treatments show promise as near-term, scalable practices. Genetic approaches, including marker-assisted selection and introgression of drought-adaptive alleles, offer longer-term gains but require multi-environment validation. We identify gaps in cross-scale evidence, notably a shortage of multi-location, farmer-level trials that quantify the cost-effectiveness and environmental safety of chemical agents. Finally, we propose an integrated research agenda combining trait-based breeding, optimized nutrient regimes, and pragmatic agronomy to improve wheat resilience to drought. Implementing coordinated strategies across breeding and management is essential to sustain wheat yields as climate variability intensifies.
Drought constitutes one of the most pervasive abiotic constraints limiting global crop productivity, with its frequency and intensity projected to increase substantially under ongoing climate change. This narrative review synthesises contemporary evidence on the genetic, physiological, and agronomic dimensions of drought resilience in major food crops, drawing on peer-reviewed literature published primarily between 2000 and 2026. Physiologically, drought impairs stomatal conductance, suppresses photosynthetic carbon assimilation, disturbs osmotic equilibrium, and restricts root-mediated water acquisition, with reproductive stages being disproportionately vulnerable. At the genetic level, the deployment of quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, transcription-factor engineering, CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, and the overexpression of stress-responsive functional genes has opened novel avenues for enhancing tolerance without compromising yield potential. Breeding programmes have increasingly integrated marker-assisted selection (MAS) and genomic selection to accelerate genetic gain, whilst high-throughput phenotyping platforms now enable rapid assessment of drought-adaptive traits at a population scale. Agronomic strategies, including deficit irrigation, conservation tillage, intercropping, and application of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR), provide complementary levers for sustaining productivity under water-limited conditions. Emerging integrative approaches that combine multi-omics, digital precision agriculture, and policy-enabled climate-smart frameworks are highlighted as critical pathways for translating laboratory and field insights into scalable solutions. The review identifies persistent knowledge gaps—including the limited translation of genomic advances to smallholder contexts and the underexplored potential of microbiome engineering—and calls for a convergence of disciplinary expertise, equitable technology transfer, and coherent policy support to achieve drought-resilient food systems globally.
B. Santhosh, V. Sanjivkumar, H. B. Gowda et al.· Journal of Advances in Biolo...· 0 citations
Drought is recognized as the primary abiotic stress limiting global crop productivity and poses a significant threat to food security. Consequently, the genetic improvement of drought tolerance has become a priority for modern plant breeding. Developing resilient cultivars requires a fundamental understanding of the physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms that plants employ to counteract water deficits. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of drought-induced effects across various developmental stages in legumes, detailing the signaling networks that facilitate stress perception and response. Furthermore, we evaluate the experimental parameters and methodologies frequently used to assess drought tolerance, weighing their respective advantages and limitations. Finally, we analyze the revolutionary role that high-throughput phenotyping could play in stress assessment and precision breeding.
Andrea Fernández-Gutiérrez, Alvaro F. Rodriguez-Torres, A. Encina et al.· Frontiers in Plant Science· 0 citations
Drought stress severely limits grapevine productivity and compromises fruit quality, with its adverse effects expected to intensify under ongoing climate change. This review synthesizes recent advances in elucidating the molecular and physiological mechanisms underlying drought tolerance in
Vitis vinifera
. Key physiological responses include abscisic acid (ABA)-mediated amplification of stomatal closure, osmotic adjustment, activation of antioxidant defense systems, and hydraulic vulnerability segmentation-a protective strategy involving the targeted sacrifice of petioles and basal leaves to maintain hydraulic integrity in stems and roots. These coordinated responses are regulated by a complex transcriptional network centered on NAC, WRKY, MYB, and bZIP transcription factors, and further modulated by hormone metabolism, potassium channel activity, aquaporin-facilitated water transport, and both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant pathways. We also identify critical knowledge gaps requiring urgent attention: (First) field-scale validation of transgenic or CRISPR-edited grapevine lines; (Second) the molecular basis of rootstock–scion signaling during drought stress; and (Third) the integration of multi-omics data with high-resolution phenotyping to accelerate precision breeding. Collectively, this review provides an integrative conceptual framework to support sustainable viticulture in water-limited environments.
Drought severely limits crop productivity, and the processes that support yield stability in modern maize heterotic hybrids remain insufficiently characterized. We evaluated two maize elite F1 hybrids, H.393 and H.166, under prolonged moderate water deficit in greenhouse and field conditions to identify genotype-specific mechanisms of drought resistance. These two hybrids previously selected in the Steppe zone of Ukraine, yielded 5.75-8.57 t/ha in droughts of 2022-2024, with no significant yield differences between the hybrids. Water stress reduced plant height, contents of chlorophylls, carotenoids, and several minerals in both hybrids demonstrated contrast adaptive strategies to drought. H.393 exhibited a metabolic response, including strong maintenance of leaf water status, activation of guaiacol peroxidase, and distinct shifts in Na and Mg homeostasis revealing drought-avoidance strategy with metabolic adjustment. In contrast, H.166 preserved stable PSII activity, sustained photochemical performance, high PIABS values, great proline accumulation, and elevated concentrations of Mn, Cu, and Zn in leaves manifested adaptive drought-tolerance strategy. Three-factor ANOVA confirmed significant contributions of genotype, water regime and stress duration to the development of most traits, revealing divergent physiological trajectories underlying similar agronomic outcomes. These findings demonstrate that comparable yield stability can arise from fundamentally different mechanisms of drought resistance and highlight the importance of integrating physiological, biochemical, and photochemical markers into breeding programs. Such insight supports more targeted maize improvement and the development of maize hybrids with predictable resilience to increasingly variable climatic conditions.
T. Satarova, P. Soudek, R. Podlipná et al.· New Biotechnology· 0 citations
Drought is a major abiotic stress that severely limits cotton productivity by reducing growth, yield, and fiber quality. Understanding genotype-specific responses to reproductive-stage drought is essential for identifying reliable selection traits and improving drought resilience in cotton breeding programs. This study evaluated 54 cotton genotypes at the flowering stage under three irrigation regimes: well-watered conditions (80% FC), mild drought stress (60% FC), and severe drought stress (40% FC). Morphological traits (root and shoot biomass), physiological traits (photosynthetic rate, leaf water loss, and relative water content), and biochemical traits (proline, soluble sugars, amino acids, antioxidant enzyme activities, and reactive oxygen species) were assessed. Drought treatments were imposed for three consecutive weeks during flowering to investigate genotype responses to varying levels of water deficit. The experiment was conducted in a rain-out shelter using a factorial completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications for each genotype–treatment combination. Cotton accessions were grown in plastic containers. Significant genotype-dependent variation was observed across all drought treatments, with responses becoming more pronounced under severe stress. Two-way analysis of variance revealed that drought significantly affected all measured traits. Descriptive statistics and boxplot analyses further illustrated variations in trait performance among genotypes under different stress levels. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed clear phenotypic divergence among genotypes and highlighted trait associations under contrasting water regimes. Heatmap analysis further confirmed genotype grouping patterns and their relationships with the evaluated traits. Moreover, MGIDI-based selection at 15% selection intensity identified G
33
(FH-901), G
50
(N-1048), G
53
(N-135), G
36
(FH-Super-Cotton), G
29
(FH-556), G
47
(MNH-1035), G
54
(N-135-BB-121/38), and G
41
(IUB-13) as drought-tolerant genotypes based on their lower MGIDI values and favorable performance. These genotypes exhibited superior performance, greater water retention, lower oxidative damage, and stronger antioxidant defense systems under water-deficit conditions. The findings provide valuable insights for cotton breeding programs aimed at developing drought-resilient cultivars and support sustainable cotton production in water-limited environments.
M. Y. Shani, A. Ditta, Muhammad Kashif Riaz Khan· Scientific Reports· 0 citations
Water deficit during germination and early establishment restricts imbibition, delays reserve mobilisation and impairs stand formation, making the seed stage an attractive target for low-input stress management. Melatonin-based seed treatment has consequently moved from an experimental curiosity to a widely studied chemical-priming approach. This critical narrative review evaluates the physiological and molecular mechanisms through which melatonin applied before sowing may mitigate water stress, while separating mechanistic plausibility from agronomic proof. Literature published from 1995 to 1 June 2026 was identified through accessible scholarly indexes, citation searching and DOI-level verification. Evidence was appraised according to stress realism, priming controls, dose definition, genotype coverage, developmental duration, mechanistic depth and field relevance. Across cucumber, rapeseed, soybean, safflower, triticale, rice, maize, peanut, wheat, cotton and foxtail millet, melatonin treatment generally improved germination, seedling vigour, membrane stability and antioxidant capacity under polyethylene glycol-induced osmotic stress or restricted water supply. The most reproducible mechanism is redox buffering: melatonin moderates damaging reactive oxygen species accumulation while preserving the signalling functions required for germination, supported by enhanced enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant systems. Osmotic adjustment, reserve mobilisation, root development, stomatal regulation, chloroplast protection and crosstalk with abscisic acid, gibberellins, nitric oxide and sugar metabolism provide additional, but unevenly substantiated, explanations. Emerging evidence implicates phytomelatonin receptor-mediated signalling, methylglyoxal detoxification and autophagy. Confidence in broad agronomic claims remains limited because most studies use short-term laboratory assays, heterogeneous concentrations and polyethylene glycol models that do not reproduce soil–plant–atmosphere drought. Rare field studies indicate possible gains in yield and water productivity, but independent multi-environment validation, treatment standardisation, storage testing, cost analysis and regulatory assessment are inadequate. Melatonin seed treatment is therefore best regarded as a promising, biologically credible priming technology whose practical value depends on crop-specific dose optimisation and evidence extending beyond early seedling biomarkers.
Heberth Christian Ferreira, A. M. S. S. David, Samy Pimenta et al.· International Journal of Pla...· 0 citations