Crop Improvement Through Temperature Resilience

• Published in: Annual review of plant biology Vol. 70; no. 1; pp. 753 - 780
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jingyu, Li, Xin-Min, Lin, Hong-Xuan, Chong, Kang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Annual Reviews 29-04-2019; Annual Reviews, Inc
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Cellular stress response; Chilling; Cold; cold acclimation; Cold Temperature; Cold tolerance; Cold-Shock Response; Cooling; Crop improvement; Crop production; Crop resilience; Crops; Freezing; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene mapping; heat; Heat stress; Heat tolerance; Molecular modelling; O-GlcNAcylation; Phosphorylation; Plant growth; Quantitative trait loci; Resilience; sensing and signaling; Signal transduction; Sterility; Temperature; Temperature effects; Temperature perception; Temperature tolerance; thermotolerance; Vernalization; heat; cold; cold acclimation; thermotolerance; sensing and signaling; vernalization
• ISSN: 1543-5008; 1545-2123
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev-arplant-050718-100016

Abnormal environmental temperature affects plant growth and threatens crop production. Understanding temperature signal sensing and the balance between defense and development in plants lays the foundation for improvement of temperature resilience. Here, we summarize the current understanding of cold signal perception transduction as well as heat stress response. Dissection of plant responses to different levels of cold stresses (chilling and freezing) illustrates their common and distinct signaling pathways. Axillary bud differentiation in response to chilling is presented as an example of the trade-off between defense and development. Vernalization is a cold-dependent development adjustment mediated by
O
-GlcNAcylation and phosphorylation to sense long-term cold. Recent progress on major quantitative trait loci genes for heat tolerance has been summarized. Molecular mechanisms in utilizing temperature-sensitive sterility in super hybrid breeding in China are revealed. The way to improve crop temperature resilience using integrative knowledge of omics as well as systemic and synthetic biology, especially the molecular module program, is summarized.