Climate Change and Abiotic Stress-Induced Oxidative Burst in Rice

Abstract The changing climate with the gradual increase in temperatures, water limiting conditions like drought, salinity, ozone exposure and above all soil contaminants have limited agricultural productivity globally. Harsh environmental conditions promote adaptation mechanisms of tolerance or mitigation in living organisms helping them to survive. Of these most of the mechanisms are controlled by several genes and their associated traits. Rice growth and development are severely affected by abiotic stress. Different responses of rice towards climate change and abiotic stress-induced mechanisms are known. Stress physiologists and environmentalists have repeatedly emphasized the one common mechanism under altered climatic or physiological conditions in growing rice plants known as an oxidative burst. Genetic enhancement of the tolerant cellular level mechanisms is the key for the sustainable growth of rice plants under stress conditions. The simultaneous improvement of protein turnover and function through co-expression of genes may additionally improve the tolerance of rice plants under limiting climate conditions. An oxidative burst in rice is a consequence of an increased pool of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to cell toxicity, thereby, resulting in oxidative stress-induced cell death. Oxidative stress below critical level elicits adaptive responses and beyond it causes cell injury. The ROS produced are known to participate in several reactions essential for rice plants. Oxidative stress-induced genes and proteins in rice exposed to climate change and abiotic stress are updated in the present article. Climate resilient rice varieties have also been listed.