Forward and reverse genetics approaches for combined stress tolerance in rice

Abstract

Climate change impact on global agricultural food production has been evident in the past few decades. Abiotic factors such as heat, drought, and salinity share a major proportion of crop yield losses and posing a serious threat to global food security. Developing climate resilient crops has become a frontier area of basic plant science and agricultural research. Persistent efforts by scientists to understand crop responses under natural environment and progress in the field of genomics and phenomics has provided unprecedented pace to crop development programs. Rice is the most important cereal crop and staple food for more than 3 billion people worldwide. Heat, drought and salinity stress are the major constraints for global rice production. Hence, efforts are warranted to develop climate-resilient rice cultivars that can produce substantially under different abiotic stresses. Crop plants seldom face single stress in the natural environment. Indeed, heat and drought or drought and salinity are documented as very obvious combinations suggesting multiple stress tolerance as an important breeding target. Forward and reverse genetic tools could effectively contribute towards achieving the target food production to feed the future population despite limiting resources and unfavorable climatic conditions. Genetic approaches adopted for crop improvement programs categorized as forward and reverse genetics are discussed highlighting their potential benefits for tailoring stress tolerant cultivars.