Genetic Engineering/Genome Editing Approaches to Modulate Signaling Processes in Abiotic Stress Tolerance

Abstract Drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures are the key abiotic stress factors that negatively influence plant growth, leading to loss of agricultural productivity worldwide. Plants during the course of their evolution develop biochemical and physiological mechanisms to withstand different abiotic stresses. This book chapter describes the plant response to abiotic stress in developing tolerance through stress signaling molecules such as late embryogenesis abundant proteins, HSPs, methylglyoxyl, HyPRPs, aquaporins, and protein kinases. Various genetic engineering approaches to modulate the abiotic stress signaling process in crop plants are also discussed along with recent case studies on transgenics, plant transcription factors, and molecular chaperones. The topic emphasizes ubiquitination pathway genes, epigenetic regulation, small RNAs, and helicases in modulating signaling processes in abiotic stress tolerance. The chapter also focuses on the huge potential of breakthrough CRISPR-Cas9 and CRISPR-Cpf1 genome editing systems in developing sustainable multiple abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants.