TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermal stresses in maize
T2 - Effects and management strategies
AU - Waqas, Muhammad Ahmed
AU - Wang, Xiukang
AU - Zafar, Syed Adeel
AU - Noor, Mehmood Ali
AU - Hussain, Hafiz Athar
AU - Azher Nawaz, Muhammad
AU - Farooq, Muhammad
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - Climate change can decrease the global maize productivity and grain quality. Maize crop requires an optimal temperature for better harvest productivity. A suboptimal temperature at any critical stage for a prolonged duration can negatively affect the growth and yield formation processes. This review discusses the negative impact of temperature extremes (high and low temperatures) on the morpho-physiological, biochemical, and nutritional traits of the maize crop. High temperature stress limits pollen viability and silks receptivity, leading to a significant reduction in seed setting and grain yield. Likewise, severe alterations in growth rate, photosynthesis, dry matter accumulation, cellular membranes, and antioxidant enzyme activities under low temperature collectively limit maize productivity. We also discussed various strategies with practical examples to cope with temperature stresses, including cultural practices, exogenous protectants, breeding climate-smart crops, and molecular genomics approaches. We reviewed that identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes controlling high-and low temperature stress tolerance in maize could be introgressed into otherwise elite cultivars to develop stress-tolerant cultivars. Genome editing has become a key tool for developing climate-resilient crops. Moreover, challenges to maize crop improvement such as lack of adequate resources for breeding in poor countries, poor communication among the scientists of developing and developed countries, problems in germplasm exchange, and high cost of advanced high-throughput phenotyping systems are discussed. In the end, future perspectives for maize improvement are discussed, which briefly include new breeding technologies such as transgene-free clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas)-mediated genome editing for thermo-stress tolerance in maize.
AB - Climate change can decrease the global maize productivity and grain quality. Maize crop requires an optimal temperature for better harvest productivity. A suboptimal temperature at any critical stage for a prolonged duration can negatively affect the growth and yield formation processes. This review discusses the negative impact of temperature extremes (high and low temperatures) on the morpho-physiological, biochemical, and nutritional traits of the maize crop. High temperature stress limits pollen viability and silks receptivity, leading to a significant reduction in seed setting and grain yield. Likewise, severe alterations in growth rate, photosynthesis, dry matter accumulation, cellular membranes, and antioxidant enzyme activities under low temperature collectively limit maize productivity. We also discussed various strategies with practical examples to cope with temperature stresses, including cultural practices, exogenous protectants, breeding climate-smart crops, and molecular genomics approaches. We reviewed that identified quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes controlling high-and low temperature stress tolerance in maize could be introgressed into otherwise elite cultivars to develop stress-tolerant cultivars. Genome editing has become a key tool for developing climate-resilient crops. Moreover, challenges to maize crop improvement such as lack of adequate resources for breeding in poor countries, poor communication among the scientists of developing and developed countries, problems in germplasm exchange, and high cost of advanced high-throughput phenotyping systems are discussed. In the end, future perspectives for maize improvement are discussed, which briefly include new breeding technologies such as transgene-free clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/CRISPR-associated (Cas)-mediated genome editing for thermo-stress tolerance in maize.
KW - Breeding and genomics
KW - Climate change
KW - Cold stress
KW - Heat stress
KW - Limitations in crop improvement
KW - Maize
KW - Oxidative damage
KW - Tolerance/susceptibility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85100481071&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/plants10020293
DO - 10.3390/plants10020293
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33557079
AN - SCOPUS:85100481071
SN - 2223-7747
VL - 10
SP - 1
EP - 23
JO - Plants
JF - Plants
IS - 2
M1 - 293
ER -