The Incidence of Heat Stress on the Quality of Food Crops in the Era of the Changing Climate: An Overview

Abstract

Maintenance of nutritional quality in crops is vital to provide quality human food as well as animal feed under stressful environmental conditions. The aim of the present review is to assess the effects of heat stress on qualitative traits of field crops. Environmental stresses significantly affect the nutritional properties and quality traits of crops through physiological and biochemical alterations occurring at different growth stages. Among environmental stresses, heat stress is the most pertinent especially under the current changing climate. Heat stress generally affects the grain quality depending upon crop cultivars. Several studies have proposed different management approaches for enhancing the grain quality of crops under heat stress environments. For managing heat stress, the grain quality may serve as a critical parameter for discriminating the crop genotypes having higher potential to grow under heat stress conditions. Among heat stress mitigating strategies, seed priming and application of osmoprotectants, organic acids, and other antioxidants have the potential to increase the grain quality of many field crops. © 2023 selection and editorial matter Shah Fahad, Muhammad Adnan, Shah Saud; individual chapters, the contributors.