http://abe.ufl.edu/Faculty/jjones/ABE_5646/Xtra%20files/The%20DSSAT%20Cropping%20System%20Model.pdf

The DSSAT cropping system model

Abiotic stress, the field environment and stress combination

As the result of intensive research and breeding efforts over the last 20 years, the yield potential and yield quality of cereals have been greatly improved. Nowadays, yield safety has gained more importance because of the forecasted climatic changes. Drought and high temperature are especially considered as key stress factors with high potential impact on crop yield. Yield safety can only be improved if future breeding attempts will be based on the valuable new knowledge acquired on the processes determining plant development and its responses to stress. Plant stress responses are very complex. Interactions between plant structure, function and the environment need to be investigated at various phases of plant development at the organismal, cellular as well as molecular levels in order to obtain a full picture. The results achieved so far in this field indicate that various plant organs, in a definite hierarchy and in interaction with each other, are involved in determining crop yield under stress. Here we attempt to summarize the currently available information on cereal reproduction under drought and heat stress and to give an outlook towards potential strategies to improve yield safety in cereals.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3040.2007.01727.x

The effect of drought and heat stress on reproductive processes in cereals.

Within their natural habitat, plants are subjected to a combination of abiotic conditions that include stresses such as drought and heat. Drought and heat stress have been extensively studied; however, little is known about how their combination impacts plants. The response of Arabidopsis plants to a combination of drought and heat stress was found to be distinct from that of plants subjected to drought or heat stress. Transcriptome analysis of Arabidopsis plants subjected to a combination of drought and heat stress revealed a new pattern of defense response in plants that includes a partial combination of two multigene defense pathways (i.e. drought and heat stress), as well as 454 transcripts that are specifically expressed in plants during a combination of drought and heat stress. Metabolic profiling of plants subjected to drought, heat stress, or a combination of drought and heat stress revealed that plants subject to a combination of drought and heat stress accumulated sucrose and other sugars such as maltose and gulose. In contrast, Pro that accumulated in plants subjected to drought did not accumulate in plants during a combination of drought and heat stress. Heat stress was found to ameliorate the toxicity of Pro to cells, suggesting that during a combination of drought and heat stress sucrose replaces Pro in plants as the major osmoprotectant. Our results highlight the plasticity of the plant genome and demonstrate its ability to respond to complex environmental conditions that occur in the field.

When Defense Pathways Collide. The Response of Arabidopsis to a Combination of Drought and Heat Stress

High temperature (HT) stress is a major environmental stress that limits plant growth, metabolism, and productivity worldwide Plant growth and development involve numerous biochemical reactions that are sensitive to temperature Plant responses to HT vary with the degree and duration of HT and the plant type HT is now a major concern for crop production and approaches for sustaining high yields of crop plants under HT stress are important agricultural goals Plants possess a number of adaptive, avoidance, or acclimation mechanisms to cope with HT situations In addition, major tolerance mechanisms that employ ion transporters, proteins, osmoprotectants, antioxidants, and other factors involved in signaling cascades and transcriptional control are activated to offset stress-induced biochemical and physiological alterations Plant survival under HT stress depends on the ability to perceive the HT stimulus, generate and transmit the signal, and initiate appropriate physiological and biochemical changes HT-induced gene expression and metabolite synthesis also substantially improve tolerance The physiological and biochemical responses to heat stress are active research areas, and the molecular approaches are being adopted for developing HT tolerance in plants This article reviews the recent findings on responses, adaptation, and tolerance to HT at the cellular, organellar, and whole plant levels and describes various approaches being taken to enhance thermotolerance in plants

Physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms of heat stress tolerance in plants

Coarse and fine regulation of wheat yield components in response to genotype and environment

Short periods (3-5 days) of high maximum temperature (>35oC), often accompanied by drought, commonly occur during grain filling of cereals. Short periods of high temperature have been shown to reduce grain weight and baking quality in wheat, but little is known about their effects on barley. Consequently, we examined the effects of high temperature and drought, alone or combined, on grain growth for two barley cultivars, Schooner and Franklin. Treatments started 15 days after anthesis and consisted of the factorial combination of three temperatures and three water regimes. The high temperature (maximum 40oC for 6 h day-1) and drought treatments were maintained for 5 or 10 days. Drought reduced individual grain weight much more (ca 20%) than high temperature (ca 5%) for both cultivars. Franklin appeared to be more sensitive to heat stress than Schooner. The reduction in individual grain weight was greatest when both stresses were combimed (ca 30%). The reduction in mature grain weight under high temperature was due to a reduction in duration of grain growth for Schooner and to a reduction in both rate and duration of grain growth for Franklin (8-12%). The reduction in duration of grain growth was the most important cause of reduced grain weight at maturity under drought alone (12-25%) or combined with high temperature (25-33%). Nitrogen content per grain was quite high and similar for all treatments, and nitrogen percentage increased when stress was severe enough to reduce starch accumulation, confirming that starch accumulation is more sensitive to post- anthesis stress than nitrogen accumulation. We conclude that drought, particularly when combined with high temperature, is more likely than heat stress to cause large reductions in grain weight of barley under field conditions.

Effects of Short Periods of Drought and High Temperature on Grain Growth and Starch Accumulation of Two Malting Barley Cultivars

Source—sink relationships and grain mass at different positions within the spike in wheat

Shading treatments of 50% of the incident radiation were applied to the semidwarf wheat cultivar Leones INTA before and after anthesis in two field experiments in Argentina in 1987 and 1988. The treatments reduced biological (above-ground dry matter) yield, grain yield and number of grains/m2. Number of grains/m2 was closely and linearly correlated with ear dry weight at anthesis and with the photothermal quotient, calculated from 20 days before to 10 days after anthesis. Grain yield was sink limited, and the shading treatments reduced sink strength. The contribution of preanthesis assimilates to grain yield was smaller in the shaded crops than in the unshaded controls; in unshaded crops, almost 40% of grain yield was contributed by preanthesis assimilates whilst in preanthesis shaded crops this contribution was negligible. The proportion of preanthesis assimilates contributed to the grain was closely related to the decrease in stem dry weight during grain filling. The effects of shading on main stems and tillers were the same.

/pdf/shading-effects-on-the-yield-of-an-argentinian-wheat-b9mavr5f68.pdf

Roxana Savin

Papers

Coarse and fine regulation of wheat yield components in response to genotype and environment

Effects of Short Periods of Drought and High Temperature on Grain Growth and Starch Accumulation of Two Malting Barley Cultivars

Source—sink relationships and grain mass at different positions within the spike in wheat

Shading effects on the yield of an Argentinian wheat cultivar

Understanding grain yield responses to source–sink ratios during grain filling in wheat and barley under contrasting environments