Ayman EL Sabagh

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Shah Fahad, Disna Ratnasekera, Faraz Azeem, Allah Wasaya, Oksana Sytar, Narendra Kumar, Analía Llanes, Murat Erman, Mustafa Ceritoğlu, Huseyin Arslan, Doğan Arslan, Sajjad Hussain, Muhammad Mubeen, Muhammad Ikram, Ram Swaroop Meena, Hany Gharib, Ejaz Waraich, Wajid Nasim, Liyun Liu and Hirofumi Saneoka

Increasing ambient temperature is a major climatic factor that negatively affects plant growth and development, and causes significant losses in soybean crop yield worldwide. Thus, high temperatures (HT) result in less seed germination, which leads to pathogenic infection, and decreases the economic yield of soybean. In addition, the efficiency of photosynthesis and transpiration of plants are affected by high temperatures, which have negative impact on the physio-biochemical process in the plant system, finally deteriorate the yield and quality of the affected crop. However, plants have several mechanisms of specific cellular detection of HT stress that help in the transduction of signals, producing the activation of transcription factors and genes to counteract the harmful effects caused by the stressful condition. Among the contributors to help the plant in re-establishing cellular homeostasis are the applications of organic stimulants (antioxidants, osmoprotectants, and hormones), which enhance the productivity and quality of soybean against HT stress. In this chapter, we summarized the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of soybean plants at various growth stages under HT. Furthermore, it also depicts the mitigation strategies to overcome the adverse effects of HT on soybean using exogenous applications of bioregulators. These studies intend to increase the understanding of exogenous biochemical compounds that could reduce the adverse effects of HT on the growth, yield, and quality of soybean.

Part of the book: Plant Stress Physiology

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Celaleddin Barutçular, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Fatih Çiğ, Murat Erman, Oksana Sytar, Marian Brestic, Allah Wasaya, Tasmiya Jabeen, Maham Asif Bukhari, Muhammad Mubeen, Habib-ur-Rehman Athar, Faraz Azeem, Hakki Akdeniz, Ömer Konuşkan, Ferhat Kizilgeci, Muhammad Ikram, Sobhy Sorour, Wajid Nasim, Mabrouk Elsabagh, Muhammad Rizwan, Ram Swaroop Meena, Shah Fahad, Akihiro Ueda, Liyun Liu and Hirofumi Saneoka

The rapidly increasing human population is an alarming issue and would need more food production under changing climate. Abiotic stresses like heat stress and temperature fluctuation are becoming key issues to be addressed for boosting crop production. Maize growth and productivity are sensitive to temperature fluctuations. Grain yield losses in maize from heat stress are expected to increase owing to higher temperatures during the growing season. This situation demands the development of maize hybrids tolerant to heat and drought stresses without compromising grain yield under stress conditions. The chapter aimed to assess the updates on the influence of high-temperature stress (HTS) on the physio-biochemical processes in plants and to draw an association between yield components and heat stress on maize. Moreover, exogenous applications of protectants, antioxidants, and signaling molecules induce HTS tolerance in maize plants and could help the plants cope with HTS by scavenging reactive oxygen species, upregulation of antioxidant enzymes, and protection of cellular membranes by the accrual of compatible osmolytes. It is expected that a better thought of the physiological basis of HTS tolerance in maize plants will help to develop HTS maize cultivars. Developing HTS-tolerant maize varieties may ensure crops production sustainability along with promoting food and feed security under changing climate.

Part of the book: Plant Stress Physiology

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Akbar Hossain, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Ali Raza, Çetin Karademir, Emine Karademir, Abdul Rehman, Md Atikur Rahman, Rajesh Kumar Singhal, Analía Llanes, Muhammad Ali Raza, Muhammad Mubeen, Wajid Nasim, Celaleddin Barutçular, Ram Swaroop Meena and Hirofumi Saneoka

The rising concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (aCO2) and increasing temperature are the main reasons for climate change, which are significantly affecting crop production systems in this world. However, the elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration can improve the growth and development of crop plants by increasing photosynthetic rate (higher availability of photoassimilates). The combined effects of elevated CO2 (eCO2) and temperature on crop growth and carbon metabolism are not adequately recognized, while both eCO2 and temperature triggered noteworthy changes in crop production. Therefore, to increase crop yields, it is important to identify the physiological mechanisms and genetic traits of crop plants which play a vital role in stress tolerance under the prevailing conditions. The eCO2 and temperature stress effects on physiological aspects as well as biochemical profile to characterize genotypes that differ in their response to stress conditions. The aim of this review is directed the open-top cavities to regulate the properties like physiological, biochemical, and yield of crops under increasing aCO2, and temperature. Overall, the extent of the effect of eCO2 and temperature response to biochemical components and antioxidants remains unclear, and therefore further studies are required to promote an unperturbed production system.

Part of the book: Abiotic Stress in Plants

By Ayman EL Sabagh, Fatih Çiğ, Seyithan Seydoşoğlu, Martin Leonardo Battaglia, Talha Javed, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Muhammad Mubeen, Musaddiq Ali, Mazhar Ali, Gülşah Bengisu, Ömer Konuşkan, Celaleddin Barutcular, Murat Erman, Semih Açikbaş, Akbar Hossain, Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Allah Wasaya, Disna Ratnasekera, Muhammad Arif, Zahoor Ahmad and Mahrous Awad

Soil salinity has emerged as a global threat to sustainability of farming systems by deteriorating the quality and productivity of crops particularly in the coastal regions of the world. Although, as a C4 plant, maize (Zea mays L.) has ability to tolerate a medium level of salinity; but initial growth stages of maize are sensitive to salinity stress. Therefore, it is crucial to expand our understanding pertaining to maize response to salt stress and tolerance mechanisms for devising approaches to enhance maize adaptability in saline environments. Moreover, maize crop undergoes several physiological changes and adapts some mechanism to overcome the salinity stress. Different mitigation strategies like application of chemicals, plant growth-promoting hormones, and use of genetic and molecular techniques are used to manage salinity and may ensure crop productivity under changing climate. This chapter aimed to assess the recent advancement pertaining to salinity stress influence on the physio-biochemical processes in maize and to draw the relationship between yield components and salinity stress. In addition, current study also highlights research gaps by focusing the seed enhancement techniques, phytohormones exogenous application and genetic improvement of maize under soil salinity.

Part of the book: Cereal Grains

By Mohammad Sohidul Islam, Imam Muhyidiyn, Md. Rafiqul Islam, Md. Kamrul Hasan, ASM Golam Hafeez, Md. Moaz Hosen, Hirofumi Saneoka, Akihiro Ueda, Liyun Liu, Misbah Naz, Celaleddin Barutçular, Javeed Lone, Muhammad Ammar Raza, M. Kaium Chowdhury, Ayman El Sabagh and Murat Erman

Global food security is under-challenged due to over increasing human population, limited cropland, and risk of climate change. Therefore, an appropriate agricultural policy framework needs to be developed for food security that should be sustainable economically and ecologically. Nitrogen (N) is a crucial element that controls the growth productivity of crop plants. N accounts for around 78 volume per cent of the atmosphere but all crop plants cannot use it directly. Agricultural land is mostly dominated by cereals (e.g. rice, wheat, maize) which have specifically high N demand as compared to food legumes. Soybean exemplifies the most significant and cultivated food legume, presently cultivated worldwide under varying climatic conditions. It plays a significant role in global food security as well as agricultural sustainability due to a high seed protein and oil concentration, and low reliance on N fertilization. Soybean enriches soil health by fixing atmospheric N through biological nitrogen fixation (BNF), the most productive and economical system for N fixation and crop production, associated with more intensive production systems. However, the efficiency of BNF depends on several factors. This study is focused to develop more reliable guidelines for managing BNF by using the potential of natural agro-ecosystems.

Part of the book: Soybean