PLANT CELL BIOTECHNOLOGY AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY

To feed the rising population the food production will have to be increased by upto 50% by 2050. Global warming induced climate change is expected to adversely affect crop productivity, especially wheat. At present, wheat contributes to 20% of calorie intake globally. With every degree rise in atmospheric temperature, studies suggest a 6% decrease in wheat production. Although huge germplasm of wheat and its wild relatives are available in germplasm banks throughout the world, the majority remains uncharacterized. A thorough study of the heat stress induced morpho-physiological and molecular changes in wheat will help in screening, identification and combating the heat stress associated yield decrease in wheat in near future. The possible strategies for combating heat stress induced yield loss in wheat include regulation of enzymes involved in photosynthesis, selection of stay green phenotype, cooler canopy temperature, deeper roots, rapid ground cover and selection of thermo-tolerant genotypes based on transcriptomics and proteomics studies in combination with the transgenic approach. An increased emphasis on wheat breeding programs revolving around the identification of thermo-tolerant genotypes of wheat will instill food security in near future under climate change conditions. In this review, we have laid emphasis on the global warming induced challenges on wheat production, the already reported studies on wheat genotypes characterization in response to high temperature stress and the strategies for improvement including recent advances in molecular biology.