Title Page -- Table of Contents -- List of contributors -- Preface -- About the editors -- CHAPTER 1: Biotechnological applications to improve salinity stress in wheat -- 1.1 Introduction -- 1.2 Salinity stress is a striking environmental threat to plants -- 1.3 Effects of salinity stress on wheat -- 1.4 Wheat natural tolerance and defence against salinity -- 1.5 Biotechnological applications to improve salinity stress in wheat -- 1.6 Conclusion and future perspectives -- References -- CHAPTER 2: Soybean under abiotic stress: Proteomic approach -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Proteomic approach -- 2.3 Proteomics for soybean -- 2.4 Proteomics of soybean under abiotic stresses -- 2.5 Conclusion and future perspectives -- Acknowledgement -- References -- CHAPTER 3: Proteomic analysis of food crops under abiotic stresses in the context of climate change -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Atmospheric greenhouse gas composition -- 3.3 Temperature -- 3.4 Conclusions and future perspectives -- References -- CHAPTER 4: Transcriptome modulation in rice under abiotic stress -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Drought stress -- 4.3 Salt stress -- 4.4 Temperature stress -- 4.5 Heavy metals -- 4.6 Common stress-responsive genes -- 4.7 Conclusions and future prospects -- Acknowledgements -- References -- CHAPTER 5: Sulphur: Role in alleviation of environmental stress in crop plants -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.2 Sulphur assimilation and the most important S compounds in plants -- 5.3 Heavy metals -- 5.4 Salinity -- 5.5 Drought -- 5.6 Hydrogen sulphide -- 5.7 Conclusions and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 6: Proline and glycine betaine modulate cadmium-induced oxidative stress tolerance in plants: Possible biochemical and molecular mechanisms -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Cadmium toxicity symptoms in plant cells and physiological and cellular responses.

6.3 Possible mechanisms of cadmium tolerance in plants -- 6.4 Cadmium-induced ROS generation in plant cells -- 6.5 Detoxification of ROS under Cd stress -- 6.6 Modulation of antioxidant enzyme activities in response to cadmium stress -- 6.7 Methylglyoxal and glyoxalase enzyme activities under cadmium stress -- 6.8 Co-ordinated induction of MG and ROS detoxification systems in inducing heavy metal stress tolerance, including Cd stress -- 6.9 Exogenous proline and betaine pretreatment and Cd stress tolerance in relation to ROS and MG detoxification -- 6.10 Conclusions and future perspectives -- References -- CHAPTER 7: Enhancement of vegetables and fruits growth and yield by application of brassinosteroids under abiotic stresses: A review -- 7.1 Introduction -- 7.2 Environmental stresses -- 7.3 Brassinosteroids -- 7.4 Role of BRs on the growth and yield of vegetables and fruits under various environmental stresses -- 7.5 Conclusion and future prospects -- Acknowledgements -- References -- CHAPTER 8: Physiological mechanisms of salt stress tolerance in plants: An overview -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Adverse impact of salinity on plants -- 8.3 Plant performance under saline conditions -- 8.4 Mechanism of salinity tolerance -- 8.5 Salt and water stress -- 8.6 Seed priming for higher salinity tolerance -- 8.7 Foliar application of salicylic acid (SA) -- 8.8 Conclusions and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 9: Heat stress in wheat and interdisciplinary approaches for yield maximization -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.2 Mineral activity during heat stress -- 9.3 Effect of temperature on growth of wheat -- 9.4 Approaches to improving heat tolerance in wheat -- 9.5 Conclusion and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 10: Effect of elevated CO2 and temperature stress on cereal crops -- 10.1 Introduction.

10.2 Physiological and biochemical effects of elevated CO2 and temperature on cereal crops -- 10.3 Stress response, tolerance and molecular approaches for yield safety -- 10.4 Understanding gene expression: use of molecular markers -- 10.5 Concluding remarks: thinking of cereals, thinking of food security -- References -- CHAPTER 11: Lipid metabolism and oxidation in plants subjected to abiotic stresses -- 11.1 Introduction -- 11.2 Lipid vulnerability to reactive oxygen species and mechanism of lipid oxidation -- 11.3 Methodologies for lipid oxidation estimation -- 11.4 Lipid oxidation in abiotic-stressed plants -- 11.5 Conclusion and future prospects -- Acknowledgement -- References -- CHAPTER 12: Physiological response of mycorrhizal symbiosis to soil pollutants -- 12.1 Introduction -- 12.2 Arbuscular mycorrhizae symbiosis and phenolic compound bioremediation -- 12.3 Arbuscular mycorrhizae symbiosis and heavy metal phytoremediation -- 12.4 Arbuscular mycorrhizae symbiosis and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons -- 12.5 Conclusions and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 13: Microbially derived phytohormones in plant adaptation against abiotic stress -- 13.1 Introduction -- 13.2 Plant growth affected by stress -- 13.3 Phytohormones - plants and stress -- 13.4 Phytohormone synthesis by rhizosphere microbes -- 13.5 Root-associated microbes confer stress tolerance to plants -- 13.6 Conclusion and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 14: Synergistic interactions among root-associated bacteria, rhizobia and chickpea under stress conditions -- 14.1 Introduction -- 14.2 Chickpea and abiotic stress -- 14.3 Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria -- 14.4 Chickpea-Mezorhizobium-PGPR interactions -- 14.5 Conclusion and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 15: Plant secondary metabolites: From molecular biology to health products -- 15.1 Introduction.

15.2 Flavonoids -- 15.3 Alkaloids -- 15.4 Tocopherols (vitamin E) -- 15.5 Terpenoids (vitamin A) -- 15.6 Lignins and tannins -- 15.7 Proteins (conjugated) -- 15.8 Conclusions and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 16: Medicinal plants under abiotic stress: An overview -- 16.1 Introduction -- 16.2 Abiotic stress affecting medicinal plants -- 16.3 Conclusion and future prospects -- Acknowledgement -- References -- CHAPTER 17: Signalling roles of methylglyoxal and the involvement of the glyoxalase system in plant abiotic stress responses and tolerance -- 17.1 Introduction -- 17.2 Methylglyoxal formation in plant cells -- 17.3 Methylglyoxal detoxification by the glyoxalase system -- 17.4 Modulation of methylglyoxal levels in plants in response to abiotic stress -- 17.5 The inhibitory roles of methylglyoxal in plant growth and development -- 17.6 Methyglyoxal-induced ROS production in plant cells under stress -- 17.7 The signalling roles of methylglyoxal in the regulation of stomatal conductance -- 17.8 Co-ordinated role of methylglyoxal and abscisic acid in stress-responsive gene expression -- 17.9 The involvement of the glyoxalase pathway in plant responses and tolerance under stresses -- 17.10 Engineering glyoxalase pathway enzymes and abiotic stress tolerance of plants -- 17.11 Conclusion and future prospects -- References -- CHAPTER 18: Role of sedges (Cyperaceae) in wetlands, environmental cleaning and as food material: Possibilities and future perspectives -- 18.1 Introduction -- 18.2 Role of sedge vegetation in wetlands -- 18.3 Environmental cleaning -- 18.4 Cyperaceae as a food material -- 18.5 Conclusion and future prospects -- References -- Index -- End User License Agreement.