Morphological, Physiobiochemical and Molecular Adaptability of Legumes of Fabaceae to Drought Stress, with Special Reference to Medicago Sativa L

Abstract

Drought stress (DS) is one of the most hostile limitations for sustainable crop production. Developing DS-tolerant crop cultivars and the use of better crop management practices may help improve crop performance under drought. In this chapter, the adverse effect of drought on the growth and development of legumes and the morphological, physiobiochemical, and molecular basis of adaptability to drought are described. Under drought, overproduction of reactive oxygen species causes oxidative damage. The role of osmolytes and antioxidants in countering the oxidative damages has been widely described. Moreover, “omics-based approaches, ” such as proteomics, metabolomics–transcriptomics, and genomics are promissory approaches to identify drought-tolerant genes, decode complex gene networks, and numerous signaling cascades involved in drought tolerance in legumes. The recently developed CRISPR-Cas technology has already been used in precision breeding of many plants including the members of Fabaceae such as alfalfa is also discussed in the chapter. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020.