Feeding 9 billion by 2050 is one of major challenges for researchers. Use of diversified crops, nonconventional water resources and rehabilitation of marginal lands are alternate options to produce more food to face climate change projections. Adaptation to climate change through climate smart agriculture practices, agroecology activities, and crop-based management packages can help transform the marginal lands from environmental burdens into productive and economic blocks. This review discusses the recent advancements on specialty group of alternate crops (oil seeds, legumes, cereals, medicinal, lignocellulose, and fruit crops) which can adapt in the marginal environments. Availability of alternate water resources (saline water, treated wastewater) for irrigation cannot be omitted. Crop diversification systems involving drought and salt-tolerant crops are likely to be the key to future agricultural and economic growth in the regions where salt-affected soils exist and/or saline aquifers are pumped for irrigation. These systems may tackle three main tasks: sustainable management of land resources and enhancement of per unit productivity; intensification of agroecological practices to increase soil fertility; and improving productivity of marginal lands for diversified climate smart crops. This review explores various aspects of marginal lands and selection of tolerant crop genotypes, crop diversification, and agroecological practices to maximize benefits.

Crop diversification and saline water irrigation as potential strategies to save freshwater resources and reclamation of marginal soils—a review

Drought stress, which is one of the most serious world environmental threats to crop production, might be compensated by some free living and symbiotic soil microorganisms. The physiological response of flax plants to inoculation with two species of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi (Funneliformis mosseae or Rhizophagus intraradices) and a phosphate solubilizing bacterium (Pseudomonas putida P13; PSB) was evaluated under different irrigation regimes (irrigation after 60, 120, and 180 mm of evaporation from Class A pan as well-watered, mild, and severe stress, respectively). A factorial (three factors) experiment was conducted for 2 years (2014–2015) based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Urmia University, Urmia, located at North-West of Iran (37° 39′ 24.82″ N44° 58′ 12.42″ E). Water deficit decreased biomass, showing that flax was sensitive to drought, and AM root colonization improved the performance of the plant within irrigation levels. In all inoculated and non-inoculated control plants, leaf chlorophyll decreased with increasing irrigation intervals. Water deficit-induced oxidative damage (hydrogen peroxide, malondialdehyde, and electrolyte leakage) were significantly reduced in dual colonized plants. All enzymatic (catalase, superoxide dismutase, glutathione reductase, and ascorbate peroxidase) and non-enzymatic (glutathione, ascorbic acid, total carotenoids) antioxidants were reduced by water-limiting irrigation. Dual inoculated plants with AM plus Pseudomonas accumulated more enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants than plants with bacterial or fungal inoculation singly. Dual colonized plants significantly decreased the water deficit-induced glycine betaine and proline in flax leaves. These bacterial-fungal interactions in enzymatic and non-enzymatic defense of flax plants demonstrated equal synergism with both AM fungi species. In conclusion, increased activity of enzymatic antioxidants and higher production of non-enzymatic antioxidant compounds in symbiotic association with bacteria and mycorrhiza can alleviate reactive oxygen species damage resulting in improve water stress tolerance.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and Pseudomonas in reduce drought stress damage in flax (Linum usitatissimum L.): a field study

The C4 grass pearl millet is one of the most drought tolerant cereals and is primarily grown in marginal areas where annual rainfall is low and intermittent. It was domesticated in sub-Saharan Africa, and several studies have found that it uses a combination of morphological and physiological traits to successfully resist drought. This review explores the short term and long-term responses of pearl millet that enables it to either tolerate, avoid, escape, or recover from drought stress. The response to short term drought reveals fine tuning of osmotic adjustment, stomatal conductance, and ROS scavenging ability, along with ABA and ethylene transduction. Equally important are longer term developmental plasticity in tillering, root development, leaf adaptations and flowering time that can both help avoid the worst water stress and recover some of the yield losses via asynchronous tiller production. We examine genes related to drought resistance that were identified through individual transcriptomic studies and through our combined analysis of previous studies. From the combined analysis, we found 94 genes that were differentially expressed in both vegetative and reproductive stages under drought stress. Among them is a tight cluster of genes that are directly related to biotic and abiotic stress, as well as carbon metabolism, and hormonal pathways. We suggest that knowledge of gene expression patterns in tiller buds, inflorescences and rooting tips will be important for understanding the growth responses of pearl millet and the trade-offs at play in the response of this crop to drought. Much remains to be learnt about how pearl millet’s unique combination of genetic and physiological mechanisms allow it to achieve such high drought tolerance, and the answers to be found may well be useful for crops other than just pearl millet.

/pdf/pearl-millet-response-to-drought-a-review-2qif9p0r.pdf

Pearl millet response to drought: A review

Forage production, quality and water-use-efficiency of four warm-season annual crops at three sowing times in the Loess Plateau region of China

Pearl millet is a C4 cereal crop that grows in arid and semi-arid climatic conditions with the remarkable abiotic stress tolerance. It contributed to the understanding of stress tolerance not only at the physiological level but also at the genetic level. In the present study, we functionally cloned and characterized three abiotic stress-inducible promoters namely cytoplasmic Apx1 (Ascorbate peroxidase), Dhn (Dehydrin), and Hsc70 (Heat shock cognate) from pearl millet. Sequence analysis revealed that all three promoters have several cis-acting elements specific for temporal and spatial expression. PgApx pro, PgDhn pro and PgHsc70 pro were fused with uidA gene in Gateway-based plant transformation pMDC164 vector and transferred into tobacco through leaf-disc method. While PgApx pro and PgDhn pro were active in seedling stages, PgHsc70 pro was active in stem and root tissues of the T2 transgenic tobacco plants under control conditions. Higher activity was observed under high temperature and drought, and less in salt and cold stress conditions. Further, all three promoters displayed higher GUS gene expression in the stem, moderate expression in roots, and less expression in leaves under similar conditions. While RT-qPCR data showed that PgApx pro and PgDhn pro were expressed highly in high temperature, salt and drought, PgHsc70 pro was fairly expressed during high temperature stress only. Histochemical and RT-qPCR assays showed that all three promoters are inducible under abiotic stress conditions. Thus, these promoters appear to be immediate candidates for developing abiotic stress tolerant crops as these promoter-driven transgenics confer high degree of tolerance in comparison with the wild-type (WT) plants.

/pdf/isolation-and-functional-characterization-of-three-abiotic-13wwajact1.pdf

Isolation and functional characterization of three abiotic stress-inducible (Apx, Dhn and Hsc70) promoters from pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.)

The present investigation was aimed to understand the physiological and biochemical basis of water-deficit stress tolerance in pearl millet [Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.] hybrid ICMH 356 and its parents ICMR 356 (♂) and ICMB 88004 (♀) in response to and recovery from drought stress and also to comprehend crop adaptation under dryland conditions. A field experiment was conducted in a split plot design with moisture levels as the main plot and genotypes as the sub plots. A comparative analysis of hybrid and parents under well-watered and water-deficit stress conditions revealed that the hybrid was superior over the parents in terms of leaf water relations, excised leaf water retention capacity, accumulation of compatible solutes, photosynthesis, membrane stability index and antioxidative enzyme viz., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione reductase (GR), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and guaiacol peroxidase (GPOX) activities. ANOVA for these parameters was also found to be significant for genotypes, treatments and their interactions at 0.01% level. Maintenance of superiority in terms of these physiological and biochemical parameters coupled with better recovery ability upon stress relief are crucial physiological mechanisms contributing to water deficit stress tolerance in pearl millet. Simple correlation coefficient analysis revealed significant positive association of yield at 0.01% level with relative water content, leaf water potential, stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, proline, total soluble sugars, free amino acids, membrane stability index, leaf area index and total biomass, while a significant negative association with solute potential and malondialdehyde content, under water-deficit stress clearly indicated that such relationships can be positively attributed to drought tolerance.

/pdf/physiological-and-biochemical-basis-of-water-deficit-stress-56wued9zka.pdf

Physiological and Biochemical Basis of Water-Deficit Stress Tolerance in Pearl Millet Hybrid and Parents

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Physiological and Biochemical Basis of Water-Deficit Stress Tolerance in Pearl Millet Hybrid and Parents