Physiological and multi-omics approaches for explaining drought stress tolerance and supporting sustainable production of rice

Authors: ZARGAR, SAJAD - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; MIR, RAKEEB - Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University; EBINEZER, LEONARD - Universita Di Padova; MASI, ANTONIO - Universita Di Padova; HAMI, AMMARAH - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; MANZOOR, MADHIYA - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; SALGOTRA, R.K - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; SOFI, NAJEEBUL - Sher-E- Kashmir University Of Agricultural Sciences & Technology Of Jammu; MUSHTAQ, ROOHI - Cluster University Srinagar; Rohila, Jai; RAKWAL, R - University Of Tsukuba

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/14/2021
Publication Date: 1/27/2022
Citation: Zargar, S.M., Mir, R.A., Ebinezer, L.B., Masi, A., Hami, A., Manzoor, M., Salgotra, R., Sofi, N.R., Mushtaq, R., Rohila, J.S., Rakwal, R. 2022. Physiological and multi-omics approaches for explaining drought stress tolerance and supporting sustainable production of rice. Frontiers in Plant Science. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.803603.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.803603

Interpretive Summary: After the first rice genome was published, worldwide myriads of genome levels studies (commonly called “-omics”) were successfully conducted by comparing DNA (genomics), mRNA (transcriptomics), proteins (proteomics), and small molecule or metabolites (metabolomics). While these studies accomplished their individual narrower goals, very few studies have been successful in providing comprehensive understanding and solutions towards broader goal of drought tolerance in crop plants, especially rice. Recent research has shown that inclusion of two or more such -omics platforms in an investigation have greater potential for extracting better and deep understanding of drought tolerance mechanisms and finding more practical solutions for improving elite germplasm for future needs. Such use of multiple -omics platforms is commonly called multi-omics approach. In this article, we briefly review the potential of multi-omics approach for explaining drought stress tolerance and for its use towards producing climate-resilient germplasm for sustainable production of rice.

Technical Abstract: Drought differs from other natural disasters in several respects, largely because of the complexity of a crop’s response to it as water constitutes a major portion of any plant, and because we have the least understanding of a crop’s inductive mechanism for addressing drought tolerance among all major abiotic stressors. Overall, growth and productivity of crops at a global level is now an issue that is more severe and arises more frequently due to several reasons including climatic change-induced flash drought stress. Among the major crops, rice is a frontline staple cereal crop of the developing world and is critical to sustaining populations. Worldwide, studies have reported a reduction in rice productivity over the years because of droughts and its interaction with other biotic and abiotic stresses. Plants are evolutionarily primed to withstand a substantial number of environmental cues by undergoing a wide range of changes at molecular level, involving genes, proteins, and metabolites’ interactions to protect the plant’s growth and development. Currently, an in-depth, precise, and systemic understanding of fundamental biological and cellular mechanisms activated by crop plants during stress is accomplished by an umbrella of -omics technologies, such as transcriptomics, metabolomics, and proteomics. This combination of multi-omics approaches provides a comprehensive understanding of cellular dynamics during drought or other stress conditions in comparison to a single -omics approach. Thus, a greater need to utilize information (i.e., big -omics data) from various molecular pathways and link it with high-throughput phenotyping platforms to develop drought-resilient crop varieties for cultivation in ever-changing climatic conditions. This review article is focused on assembling current peer-reviewed published knowledge on the use of multi-omics approaches toward expediting the development of drought-tolerant rice plants for sustainable rice production and realizing global food security.