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5.1 Plant Responses to Environmental Stress Factors: An Overview

Plant responses to various environmental stresses are extremely variable and highly complicated, which may include changes at the physiological, cellular, and transcriptional level. Recent studies indicate that plant responds differently to multiple stresses as they respond to individual stress, by the activation of specific gene expressions, which are needed in particular environmental stress. Plants have developed to grow in their environment where plants are frequently subjected to various environmental conditions, as they are sessile and have well-emerged mechanisms that allowed them to recognize minute environmental changes to avoid damage and to conserve energy for growth and development. Plants can activate specific responses to confer stress, so it became difficult to study multiple responses at a time by available techniques. This phenomenon is quite accurate for both biotic and abiotic stresses. There is a dire need for vast research in plant studies in order to evaluate the multiple stresses and how plants can tolerate these stresses (Atkinson and Urwin 2012; Zhu 2016). In this regard, conventional and modern breeding platforms can help us to select plants for the improvement of dsirable traits; such as 1) development of environmental stress resistance plants, 2) to increase sustainable yield production, and 3) to enhance the content of micronutrients to develop nutritious crops. 

5.1.1 Multiple Environmental Stresses: A Challenge in Agriculture

Essentially, plants require water, carbon, and vital mineral nutrients for growth and normal development (Cramer et al. 2011). Most of the time, plants do not grow in standard conditions, which limit their genetic potential to achieve maximum height and reproductive stage (Bray et al. 2000). This fact is observed by comparing the maximum crop yield and the average crop yield. This difference in yield is due to suboptimal environmental conditions, which induce damaging the physiological changes which occur within the plants, called stresses (Simontacchi et al. 2015; Shao et al. 2008; Zhu 2016).

Abiotic stresses such as cold, high temperature, drought, salinity, and nutrient imbalance are those environmental stresses which limit the plant growth and production below the threshold level. In addition to this, plants must have to defend themselves against various pathogens and pests, which may include fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and herbivore pests. Each plant activates a specific response mechanism to a particular stress to avoid damage (Hammond-Kosack 2000). Plant responses can be elastic (reversible) and plastic (irreversible). The duration of stress can also vary which directly affects the plant response. The plant reaction toward stress factors depends on the specific tissue or organ, which is affected by the corresponding stress factor. For instance, the transcriptional responses are different and depend on stress, which is either tissue- or cell-specific in roots. Water stress, for example, affects the plant cell wall enzymatically and nonenzymatically which may inhibit plant growth (Cramer et al. 2011). Under field conditions, drought and temperature are the major principal stresses and have a remarkable effect on different crops (Raza et al. 2019a).

5.2 How Can Climate Change Affect Plant Developmental Responses?

Climate change is one of the main reasons which widely affects plant growth and reproduction. This changing climatic conditions and increasing population led to the demand of stress-tolerant plant species to meet the environmental conditions and energy demand (Takeda and Matsuoka 2008; Raza et al. 2019a; Newton et al. 2011).

As plants are sessile, they have to tolerate fluctuating environmental conditions in order to survive. The climatic catastrophe, which may be in the form of drought, salinity, elevated temperature, and elevated CO2 , represents a concerned issue toward the sustainable development of agriculture. Naturally, plants are blessed with the ability to sense climate change and adapt accordingly. With changing the environment, plants evolved and have developed precise molecular and cellular mechanisms that enable them to survive in harsh conditions. However, unfortunately, there is not enough research on how plants evolved currently at present, and this knowledge gap should be minimized to develop the plant species, which can tolerate not only individual stresses but also multiple stresses (Ahuja et al. 2010). Recent researches in “omics” approach led to better understanding of transcriptome, proteome, and metabolomics of plants by linking with stress perceptions and responses. These approaches are also studied in other crop and woody plant species besides a model plant Arabidopsis (Coolen et al. 2016; Varoquaux et al. 2019; Razzaq et al. 2019; Zhang et al. 2019; You et al. 2019). 

5.2.1 Elevated CO2 Levels Affect Plant Development and Morphology

The CO2 levels in the atmosphere have elevated to 440 ppm from 280 ppm due to increased industrial activity (Meehl et al. 2007). Increased levels of CO2 directly affect plant developmental processes and photosynthetic exchange of gas. Plants are also affected indirectly by CO2 as it is the cause of the greenhouse effect that causes global warming and other drastic changes in climate. Studies in C3 plants have found that the elevation in CO2 level contributes to increased aboveground biomass. In grassland species, the aboveground biomass has been found to increase by 33%, but it also depends on nutrient and water availability in soil. In dry and hot areas, there is low aboveground biomass due to low water and nitrogen availability (Reich et al. 2014). Studies also indicated that root biomass also increased due to increased CO2 levels (Madhu and Hatfield 2013). The increased production of shoot biomass led to an increase in seed yield, as is observed in most plant species such as soybean, peanut, wheat, bean, and rice (Hatfield et al. 2011). Soybean, the model plant, has shown increased leaf length and the number of leaf nodes, increased seed yield and pod number, and elongated root (Bishop et al. 2015; Gray et al. 2016).

5.2.2 Effects of Elevated Temperature

The global average temperature has been increased to 0.85 from 1880 to 2012, due to increasing concentrations of CO2 and other greenhouse gases (Hartmann et al. 2013). By the end of the century, there is a prediction of increasing global mean temperature from 1.0 to 3.7 °C. This increasing temperature makes the plants undergo heat stress due to changing frequency, intensity, and duration of heat waves. The effects of elevation in CO2 are quite consistent across many plant species, while the elevation in temperature causes the plants to behave differently in different regions across the globe. In the Arctic, for instance, the surface temperature increases much faster as compared to other regions (Gray et al. 2016). The elevation in temperature affects plant development based on their growing regions. The yield of some plants increased, while the yield of the same plants decreased when grown in different regions. For example, soybean had a maximum yield in the Midwestern USA as compared to low yield in the Southern USA (Hatfield et al. 2011). The plant physiology and development are also affected by temperature, which in turn affects the yield of the plant. This reduction in plant yield is also due to decreasing the activity of carbon assimilation enzyme Rubisco either by a reduction in activity of Rubisco actives or by reduction in the generation of ribulose-1,5 biphosphate (RuBP). The C3 and C4 plants have different photosynthetic functions and behave accordingly in their optimal range of temperatures (Sage et al. 2008). This mechanism is quite clear that plant development depends on species-specific temperature optimum.

5.2.3 Effects of Drought Stress on Plant Physiology

Climate change is one of the major reasons for water stress. This increasing water stress is affecting plant growth in different regions of the world. It is predicted that the drought will increase in those areas which are already under water stress. Drought can cause damaging hydrologic imbalances due to prolonged dry weather affecting plant development and morphology (Gray et al. 2016). Drought stress can be observed in different plant organs and tissues. This stress often leads to elongation of root and reduction in shoot growth. This means that root elongates at the expense of shoot. For instance, the two grass species (H. lanatus and A. pratensis) showed increased nutrient and metabolite content in roots as compared to shoots (Gargallo-Garriga et al. 2014). This property proves the functional equilibrium theory in which plants will try to optimize the limiting resource by shifting allocation among tissues. This adaptive behavior will help the plants grow in water-deficit areas by the reduction in transpiration rates as plants invest more in roots than in shoots.

5.2.4 Multiple Environmental Stress Effects on Plant Development

There is limited research on how plants behave when a number of stresses are inflicted upon them at a time. Researchers have studied each stress independently but still challenging to comprehend multiple stresses. Climate change is one of the main reasons for the increasing number of stresses, and thus plants have to behave accordingly. In soybean, for instance, seed yield is increased by the elevation of CO2 which diminishes due to drought stress (Ruiz-Vera et al. 2018; Gray et al. 2016). In maize, high CO2 and elevated temperature do not contribute to an increase in seed yield (Ruiz-Vera et al. 2015, 2018). These effects demonstrated that the influence of one climate change factor is affected by the presence of another climate change factor on plant development and physiology. In order to comprehend the interactive effects of changing climate, there is a need to study how plants reacted to climate change at the molecular and cellular level.

5.3 How Transgenic Plants Respond to Different Environmental Stresses?

The transgenic approach has helped us to understand the ways of stress tolerance. Transgenic plants have developed to study the abiotic stress factors in greenhouses, growth rooms, and under a controlled environment. These studies have helped to understand the behavior of the number of transgenic plants in stress conditions like drought, salinity, and low and high temperature (Ashraf and Foolad 2007; Wang et al. 2016a; Gilliham et al. 2017). Some examples of transgenic plants showing resistance to different environmental stresses are described in Table 5.1.

Table 5.1 Transgenic plants indicating tolerance to different environmental stresses via gene expression
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There is a comparable difference which exists between conventional and transgenic approaches to tolerate water stress. The genes of significant metabolic and defensive pathways can be engineered through transgenic approaches such as osmoprotectant producing pathways and antioxidant defense approaches (Singh et al. 2015; Wang et al. 2016a). Microarray techniques are proving helpful in several stress-inducible genes, but their function at the molecular level is still unknown. Recently, the study was carried out to enhance the photosynthetic properties of different C3 crops either by the introgression of C4 genes or by the overexpression of C3 genes (Ashraf and Harris 2013).

Among other abiotic stresses, high salinity is exceptionally damaging for plants. In transgenic plants, compartmentation and diversion of harmful ions such as Na+ and Cl− from delicate areas of plants like mesophyll to apoplast or vacuole took place to avoid the deleterious effects of high salinity (Sperling et al. 2014). Transgenic plants, mostly halophytes, have increased salinity tolerance due to overexpression of the ion transporter gene (Flowers and Colmer 2008). The physiological and molecular responses are determinant of plant survival under low temperatures (John et al. 2016; Sergeant et al. 2014). Transgenic plants at transcriptional as well as translational levels show cold tolerance mechanisms. Biotechnological and molecular approaches are used to alter gene expression in such a way that it increases the concentration of several metabolites to avoid cold stress (John et al. 2016). The expression of altered genes, which have been evaluated most recently, is said to be controlled by core binding factor (CBF) or dehydration responsive element binding (DREB) binding factors (Agarwal et al. 2017).

High temperature, another abiotic factor, has to be tolerated by plants in this fluctuating environmental temperature (Mittler et al. 2012). High temperature directly affects the proteome, transcriptome, metabolome, and liposome which makes it challenging for the plants to survive. Molecular chaperones such as heat shock protein (HSP) are highly valuable in avoiding the harmful effect of high temperature (Xu et al. 2013). Five major HSPs play a central role in avoiding stress. These HSPs may also combine with other co-chaperones to repair damaged proteins by refolding, thereby protecting plant cellular functions. Any reduction in the HSPs is responsible for the abnormal development of plants (Kotak et al. 2007).

Pest-resistant crops are highly useful in limiting the biotic stress caused by pests and fungi. The development of these bio-friendly plants helps to improve plant tolerance to a certain fungicide or a pesticide (Mahmood et al. 2014). In the literature, it is well reported that resistance to pests can be brought about by enhancing the complex multigene enzymes activities such as glutathione-S-transferase, esterases, and cytochrome P450s (Bass and Field 2011).

Another factor, nutrient use efficiency (NUE), becomes reduced due to leaching, surface runoff, volatilization, or microbial consumption. Efficient means are required to maximize the nutrient use efficiency to diminish mineral losses (Salim and Raza 2020; Baligar and Fageria 2015). There are not enough molecular approaches used to date to improve the NUE of plants. However, despite the limiting knowledge, it has been acknowledged that transcription factors and associated kinases are improving the NUE of plants (Salim and Raza 2020; Canales et al. 2014).

Heavy metal toxicity leads to necrosis and stunted growth of plants, and it is one of the major determinants to assess agricultural productivity (Liu et al. 2014b). It not only affects the plant at the cellular level but also at the molecular level by impairing transcription and replication mechanisms (User 2013). Phytoremediation is a highly useful technique in eliminating environmental contaminants (Glick 2003). Moreover, rhizoremediation, including plants and also their rhizospheric microbes which naturally either exist or are introduced in plants, can help to eliminate or reduce contamination levels and encourage normal plant development (Rainbird et al. 2018).

5.4 Role of Transcription Factors (TFs) in Stress Management

Plants have developed a number of defense processes to tolerate abiotic stresses. It is becoming essential to assess these mechanisms to produce new varieties of genetically stress-tolerant plants. Due to the progress in novel genetic fields such as genomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, now it is not only easy to dissect the whole defense mechanism but also have the ability to enhance the resistance in plants (Liu et al. 2014a). Molecular markers contribute to the utilization of candidate genes in the genetic engineering of crops (Raza et al. 2019b). As it becomes easy to study the stress signaling pathway, therefore, the generic signaling pathway consists of key steps such as signal perception, signal transduction, stress-responsive gene expression, concerning physiological processes, and metabolic reactions (Zhu 2016; Pérez-Clemente et al. 2013). Firstly, plants via sensors/receptors present in the cell wall or membrane receive the extracellular stimuli. The second messenger, which includes inositol phosphate, sugar, reactive oxygen species (ROS), calcium ions (Ca2+), cyclic nucleotides (cAMP and cGMP), and nitric oxide (NO), converts the extracellular signals into intracellular signals. Thereupon, these secondary messengers activate the required signaling pathway to transduce the signal (Newton et al. 2016; Bhargava and Sawant 2013). The phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of proteins are carried out with the help of protein kinase and phosphatases, respectively, in most of the signaling pathways and quite effective in signal relay mechanism (Jaiwal and Singh 2003). For example, in plant abiotic stress, the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs ) pathways and calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) pathways are known to play an important role (Simeunovic et al. 2016; Huang et al. 2012; Rayapuram et al. 2018). The protein kinases or phosphatases activate transcription factors at the end of phosphorylation chain and further bind TFs precisely to cis-elements in the promoter region of stress-related genes and modulate their transcription process (Simeunovic et al. 2016). At the same time, further upstream components regulate TFs to their transcript level and undergo a number of alterations at the posttranscriptional level, like ubiquitination and simulation. After posttranscriptional modification, it forms a multiplex regulatory network to inflect the response of stress-related genes that regulate physiological activities and metabolic reactions (Simeunovic et al. 2016; Zhu 2016; Mizoi et al. 2013). A model for plant abiotic stress responses is described in Fig. 5.1.

Fig. 5.1
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Signaling pathways of plant abiotic stresses. Some key factors plays a vital role in signaling pathways such as perception of stress, transcriptional regulation, expression of stress-responsive genes, and physiological responses for the development of abiotic stress tolerance plants

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All these steps contribute to form a genetic pathway for abiotic stress-related signal transduction in plants. Various TFs have been identified and characterized through a considerable research, which are elaborated in abiotic stress responses in plants either in ABA-dependent pathways or in ABA-independent pathways (Simeunovic et al. 2016; Umezawa et al. 2006; Zhu 2016; Golldack et al. 2011). Several studies were carried out to engineer these TFs to overcome plant stress tolerance, and some worth noting results have been reported (Table 5.2).

Table 5.2 The potential role of transcription factors (TFs) in relation to different abiotic stresses
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5.5 Regulation of Environmental Responses in Plants by Oxidative Stress

The growth of plants depends on the exposing environment. Due to the continuous fluctuating environment, these plants are open to a number of stress factors and other extreme meteorological conditions such as drought and floods, heat and frost waves, and others, which are mainly encouraged by climate change (Raza et al. 2019a; Walter et al. 2013). The dose-response connection is a property of the stress factor. These stress factors inflict the stress on plants from a specific intensity level of stress; according to classical stress theory, low doses of stress does not cause much damage to plants, but instead, they can stimulate metabolism and growth—a phenomenon called eustress (Poschenrieder et al. 2013).

Oxidative stress, which is mainly a disproportion between oxidizing (ROS) and reducing (antioxidants) factors, is a common property of all environmental stresses (Potters et al. 2010). ROS are produced by aerobic plant metabolism as a by-product. These ROS are either excited or reduced forms of oxygen. Various forms of ROS, for example, superoxide (O˙−2), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and hydroxyl radical (HO˙), are obtained when atmospheric oxygen undergoes univalent reduction (Sgherri et al. 2018; Gill and Tuteja 2010).

Almost all environmental stresses are responsible for enhancing the rate of ROS. The most common processes observed are disruption of photosynthesis and reduction in stomatal conductance results in the making of ROS. Increase in photorespiration is due to the reduction in stomatal conductance which causes increases in 70% of H2O2. During a water shortage, excessive photorespiration causes stomata to close to reduce transpiration results in CO2 deficiency which leads to limited photosynthesis (Sgherri et al. 2018; Dat et al. 2000; Noctor et al. 2002; Nayyar and Gupta 2006).

Oxidative stress can be induced by some stress factors directly, such as transition metals, e.g., iron and copper, that activate the Haber–Weiss pathway and elevate the production of HO˙ (Bhattacharjee 2019; Ravet and Pilon 2013). In addition to metals, ozone can also induce ROS production directly which results in apoplast breakdown and formation of H2O2 and HO˙. Further, metabolic changes cause a secondary oxidative burst, which further increases the synthesis of ROS (Fiscus et al. 2005). In addition, these metabolic abnormalities induce oxidative stress indirectly mainly by UV-B radiation (Hideg et al. 2013). Nevertheless, many researchers believe that UV-B has the ability to convert H2O2 to HO˙, which directly leads to the damage of oxidative tissues (Czégény et al. 2014). Plants to avoid oxidative stress have evolved many approaches. Both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants are helpful to control ROS concentration, of which the two most important are superoxide dismutase (SOD) which catalyzes the production of H2O2 and catalase (CAT) which eliminates H2O2 in peroxisomes. The vital non-enzymatic antioxidants are tocopherols, ascorbate, glutathione (GSH), carotenoids, and flavonoids which have a significant part in ROS elimination and in repairing cell damage (Kacienė et al. 2015).

5.6 Phytohormones: Role in Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses

As it is evident, Ca2+- and ROS-mediated plant responses to environmental stresses do not contribute much as the stress response mechanism is highly complex. Phytohormones have the ability to mitigate stress response because of the highly intricate link among plant hormones and their capability to regulate physiological functions (Verma et al. 2016). A group of nine different plant hormones mediates the production of highly efficient response, and their signaling pathways are interconnected to help in the plant’s defense mechanism. The major phytohormones are auxins, gibberellin (GA), cytokinin (CK), abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene (ET) , salicylic acid (SA), jasmonate (JA), brassinosteroid (BRs), and strigolactones (STs) . For abiotic stresses and pathogens, ABA, SA, JA, and ethylene are recognized to have a significant role (Raza et al. 2019c; Nakashima and Yamaguchi-Shinozaki 2013). The levels of ABA are increased in abiotic stresses like salinity, drought, and low and high temperature (Raza et al. 2019c; Lata and Prasad 2011). Comparatively, other hormones such as SA, JA, and ethylene have a key role in biotic stresses as well, and their levels increase with the pathogen infection (Bari and Jones 2009). The possible role of hormones related to different stresses in plants is described in Fig. 5.2. However, the stress response process is not only limited to these hormones. Recent research in plant hormones has provided considerable evidence for the cross talk of ABA, SA, JA, and ET with auxins, GA, and CK in regulating plant defense responses (Bari and Jones 2009; Raza et al. 2019c; Nishiyama et al. 2013).

Fig. 5.2
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Hormonal cross-talk related to different environmental stresses in the plant with a relation to ABA. Abbreviations are explained in the text. Modified from Raza et al. (2019a)

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5.7 Interaction of Plants with Other Organisms and Viruses in Stress Management

Microbes or microbial community plays a vital role to mitigate environmental constraints. The soil contains a pool of microbial population that comprises of bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, protozoa, and algae. The maximum number of bacteria is found around the area of plant roots commonly called the rhizosphere, as compared to bulk soil. Bacteria can infect plants in three ways. Firstly, the bacteria may be harmful, beneficial, or neutral to plants. Secondly, plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) includes both free-living and those that form symbiotic relationships with plants. Lastly, bacterial endophytes that colonize in plants interior and cyanobacteria make symbiotic relationship with fungi. The symbiotic relationship of PGPB with plants helps them to avoid environmental stresses and protects plants from dying. Over the past decade, bacteria belonging to the diverse genera have been stated to bestow host plants under different abiotic stress environments (Ho et al. 2017). Figure 5.3 shows the factors that affect the plant–microbe interaction during both abiotic and biotic stresses.

Fig. 5.3
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Environmental stresses affecting plant–microbe interaction

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PGPB also help plants to combat biotic stresses in two different ways: directly by phytohormone production or by assisting the uptake of certain nutrients that promote plant growth or indirectly when PGPB minimizes or eliminates the harmful effects of pathogens. For example, the growth of phytopathogenic fungi is inhabited by 2,4-diacetyl phloroglucinol (DAPG) produced by P. Fluorescens (Voisard et al. 1994). The new approach to developing entomopathogenic bacteria has been in use to handle resistant pests. Several species are used as biological control of pests includes Aschersonia, Agerata, Verticillium, Sphaerostilbe, Podonectria, Myriangium, Hirsutella, Metarhizium, and Bacillus thuringiensis. Brevibacillus laterosporus is considered to be productive against insects like Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, nematodes, and phytopathogenic fungi (Boets et al. 2004; Saikia et al. 2011).

5.8 Usage of Bioinformatics Tools for Expression Analysis of Plant Transcriptome

Bioinformatics has been incorporated in different subjects of sciences, including plant breeding (Barh et al. 2013). Table 5.3 shows a list of bioinformatics tools for gene expression analysis based on statistical data analysis in plant breeding programs. The consistency and predictability of plant breeding programs, reduction in time, and the cost of stress-tolerant varieties are now possible with the help of OMICs tools (Van Emon 2015). These tools can enhance the nutritional content of food crops and maximize the agricultural production for food, feed, and energy (Davies 2010; Van Emon 2015). Transcriptomics, a subcategory of OMICs, appeals several scientists especially in plant breeding subjects (Shariatipour and Heidari 2017). It allows us to classify genes differentially present in diverse cell populations or in reaction to altered treatments. Microarray, a high-throughput technique, has the ability to measure gene expression and thereby produce functional data for numerous genes at once (Schulze and Downward 2001; Oktem et al. 2008). However, to overcome environmental distress and to improve plant varieties, it is crucial to investigate the role of bioinformatics.

Table 5.3 A lists of bioinformatics tools for gene expression analysis
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5.9 Plant Evolution-Adaptive and Neutral Processes

The K-Pg dividing line is commonly linked with its related extinction events, which comprise the last five important mass extinction events in the Phanerozoic Eon (Rohde and Muller 2005). Several environmental issues, such as the rise in volcanism and global warming, were responsible for this mass extinction which leads to unfavorable conditions for the existence of the number of living organisms (Robertson et al. 2013).

In order to study the present-day challenges, the production of polyploids is being observed, which are often exposed to changing and unstable environment. In the Arctic, for example, there is an excess of latterly establishing polyploids. The adaptive and neutral processes have the ability to describe these phenomena and the consequences thereof for plant evolution. Both these processes help in the enhancement of polyploidy establishment under changing environment and distress conditions. An unreduced gamete formation might be increased by the adaptive processes in addition to other processes such as hybridization and extinction of the background diploid population. This is likely to lead to other polyploids being established even in the unavailability of any active adaptive benefit. On the other hand, transgressive segregation and genomic vulnerability of polyploids may lead toward the heterotic phenotypes, enhanced phenotypic irregularity, and plasticity. If it is considered useful, then it might be quickly selected under the changing environmental conditions, which is likely to lead to more polyploids being established even in the lake of enhanced polyploid formation (Vanneste et al. 2014). It is imperative that the environment plays a crucial role in polyploid formation regardless of which process contributes more as described in Fig. 5.4.

Fig. 5.4
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Systematic diagram of neutral and adaptive action likely involved in the enhancement of polyploid formation under different environmental stresses and/or fluctuations

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5.10 Conclusion and Future Perspectives

Environmental stresses are responsible for reversible and irreversible changes in the plants. These changes can be biochemical, physiological, and genomic types, including at transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels. Climate change is the major reason for the environmental distress and is responsible for increasing drought and salinity and low and high temperature. These changes minimize the plant plasticity for development and agricultural productivity. However, it has been reported that the world population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 (United Nation 2017). To overcome the food demands in coming years, it is very important to generate climate-resiliet plants. Plant biotechnology played a vital role in the establishment of stress-resistant plant varieties. However, care should be taken in creating transgenic varieties to introduce genes that have the ability to tolerate interactive stress factors, precisely at the entire plant level. Currently, there is less understanding of plant responses to harsh climate conditions in several experiments related to molecular changes. A more holistic approach is needed which requires data from several biological kinds of research to study individual and multiple stress conditions. Nevertheless, the integration of OMICS approaches could help us to identify stress related genes and regulators, which ultimately leads towards the manipulation of candidate genes for the development of climate-resilient plants. Additionally, a powerful genome editing tool such as CRISPR/Cas system together with conventional and modern breeding technologies should be utilize to cope with environmental stresses and to secure the world food security for sustainable agriculture.