Fang Yujie, Xiong Lizhong
National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement and National Center of Plant Gene Research (Wuhan), Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China,
Cell Mol Life Sci. 2015 Feb;72(4):673-89. doi: 10.1007/s00018-014-1767-0. Epub 2014 Oct 22.
Plants often encounter unfavorable environmental conditions because of their sessile lifestyle. These adverse factors greatly affect the geographic distribution of plants, as well as their growth and productivity. Drought stress is one of the premier limitations to global agricultural production due to the complexity of the water-limiting environment and changing climate. Plants have evolved a series of mechanisms at the morphological, physiological, biochemical, cellular, and molecular levels to overcome water deficit or drought stress conditions. The drought resistance of plants can be divided into four basic types-drought avoidance, drought tolerance, drought escape, and drought recovery. Various drought-related traits, including root traits, leaf traits, osmotic adjustment capabilities, water potential, ABA content, and stability of the cell membrane, have been used as indicators to evaluate the drought resistance of plants. In the last decade, scientists have investigated the genetic and molecular mechanisms of drought resistance to enhance the drought resistance of various crops, and significant progress has been made with regard to drought avoidance and drought tolerance. With increasing knowledge to comprehensively decipher the complicated mechanisms of drought resistance in model plants, it still remains an enormous challenge to develop water-saving and drought-resistant crops to cope with the water shortage and increasing demand for food production in the future.
由于植物固着生长的生活方式，它们常常遭遇不利的环境条件。这些不利因素极大地影响了植物的地理分布及其生长和生产力。由于水分限制环境的复杂性和气候变化，干旱胁迫是全球农业生产的首要限制因素之一。植物在形态、生理、生化、细胞和分子水平上进化出了一系列机制来克服水分亏缺或干旱胁迫条件。植物的抗旱性可分为四种基本类型——避旱性、耐旱性、逃旱性和旱后恢复能力。各种与干旱相关的性状，包括根系性状、叶片性状、渗透调节能力、水势、脱落酸含量和细胞膜稳定性，已被用作评估植物抗旱性的指标。在过去十年中，科学家们研究了抗旱的遗传和分子机制，以提高各种作物的抗旱性，在避旱性和耐旱性方面取得了显著进展。随着对模式植物抗旱复杂机制全面解读的知识不断增加，开发节水抗旱作物以应对未来水资源短缺和粮食生产需求增加的问题，仍然是一项巨大的挑战。
