Omics and approaches in plant stress management

Abstract Understanding of complex regulatory pathways of abiotic stress management in plant requires investigations of biological system. Recent revolution in omics technologies, viz., genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and bioinformatics, have enabled researchers to analyze and identify the genetic elements behind system complexity. The most important challenge of this technology is the storage and handling of the data procured from the genome scaffold. Significant progress has been made in statistical, mathematical, and informatics-driven analysis of omics data. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in postgenomics era, bioinformatics is changing the way of experiments, designed in molecular biology, and in process of revolutionizing genetic engineering programs for enhancing stress tolerance. In areas such as crop production, plant safety, and enhancement of quality, the role of bioinformatics as a significant instrument for molecular breeding is increasing steadily. Increased demand for biofuel crops, increase in population, and global climate change have become a challenge to modern plant biotechnology, as well as a question of urgency for sustainable agriculture.