Water Stress in Crop Plants and Its Management: A Metabolomic Insight

Abstract

A majority of crops are damaged by climate change and under abiotic stress plants lose their quality and yield. Water stress is the one devastating abiotic stress agent which covers 2.97 lakh hectares in the form of drought and 2.5 lakh hectares as water logged area. Plants alter their metabolites under the effect of water stress to face the challenges created by water stress. The primary metabolites retain the osmolytes of the plant to balance the osmoticum under the influence of drought and the water logged phase. On the other hand secondary metabolites help in providing the plant an ability to resist drought and submergence. Since genes control every reaction involving metabolites, understanding the precise mechanism is essential to obtain the highest crop yield and best quality. The signaling pathway provides knowledge about the particular transcription factor and promoter. It also sheds light on the overexpression of that part of the operon system that can enhance the resistance against water stress in crop plants. © 2025 Prabhat Kumar Srivastava, Parul Parihar and Richa Upadhyay. All rights reserved.