Hormonal and metabolic regulation of source-sink relations under salinity and drought: from plant survival to crop yield stability - PubMed

Review

Hormonal and metabolic regulation of source-sink relations under salinity and drought: from plant survival to crop yield stability

Alfonso A Albacete et al. Biotechnol Adv. 2014 Jan-Feb.

Abstract

Securing food production for the growing population will require closing the gap between potential crop productivity under optimal conditions and the yield captured by farmers under a changing environment, which is termed agronomical stability. Drought and salinity are major environmental factors contributing to the yield gap ultimately by inducing premature senescence in the photosynthetic source tissues of the plant and by reducing the number and growth of the harvestable sink organs by affecting the transport and use of assimilates between and within them. However, the changes in source-sink relations induced by stress also include adaptive changes in the reallocation of photoassimilates that influence crop productivity, ranging from plant survival to yield stability. While the massive utilization of -omic technologies in model plants is discovering hundreds of genes with potential impacts in alleviating short-term applied drought and salinity stress (usually measured as plant survival), only in relatively few cases has an effect on crop yield stability been proven. However, achieving the former does not necessarily imply the latter. Plant survival only requires water status conservation and delayed leaf senescence (thus maintaining source activity) that is usually accompanied by growth inhibition. However, yield stability will additionally require the maintenance or increase in sink activity in the reproductive structures, thus contributing to the transport of assimilates from the source leaves and to delayed stress-induced leaf senescence. This review emphasizes the role of several metabolic and hormonal factors influencing not only the source strength, but especially the sink activity and their inter-relations, and their potential to improve yield stability under drought and salinity stresses.

Keywords: Assimilate transport; Biomass partitioning; Cytokinins; Fruit/grain filling; Gibberellins; Hormonal signaling; Invertases; Leaf senescence; Stay green; Sucrose and starch metabolism.

Similar articles

• Cytokinin-mediated source/sink modifications improve drought tolerance and increase grain yield in rice under water-stress.

  Peleg Z, Reguera M, Tumimbang E, Walia H, Blumwald E. Peleg Z, et al. Plant Biotechnol J. 2011 Sep;9(7):747-58. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7652.2010.00584.x. Epub 2011 Feb 1. Plant Biotechnol J. 2011. PMID: 21284800

• Hormonal and metabolic regulation of tomato fruit sink activity and yield under salinity.

  Albacete A, Cantero-Navarro E, Balibrea ME, Großkinsky DK, de la Cruz González M, Martínez-Andújar C, Smigocki AC, Roitsch T, Pérez-Alfocea F. Albacete A, et al. J Exp Bot. 2014 Nov;65(20):6081-95. doi: 10.1093/jxb/eru347. Epub 2014 Aug 28. J Exp Bot. 2014. PMID: 25170099 Free PMC article.

• Microbial amelioration of crop salinity stress.

  Dodd IC, Pérez-Alfocea F. Dodd IC, et al. J Exp Bot. 2012 May;63(9):3415-28. doi: 10.1093/jxb/ers033. Epub 2012 Mar 8. J Exp Bot. 2012. PMID: 22403432 Review.

• ABA biosynthesis and degradation contributing to ABA homeostasis during barley seed development under control and terminal drought-stress conditions.

  Seiler C, Harshavardhan VT, Rajesh K, Reddy PS, Strickert M, Rolletschek H, Scholz U, Wobus U, Sreenivasulu N. Seiler C, et al. J Exp Bot. 2011 May;62(8):2615-32. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erq446. Epub 2011 Feb 2. J Exp Bot. 2011. PMID: 21289079

• Non-structural carbohydrate partitioning in grass stems: a target to increase yield stability, stress tolerance, and biofuel production.

  Slewinski TL. Slewinski TL. J Exp Bot. 2012 Aug;63(13):4647-70. doi: 10.1093/jxb/ers124. Epub 2012 Jun 25. J Exp Bot. 2012. PMID: 22732107 Review.

Cited by

• Stress-induced and epigenetic-mediated maize transcriptome regulation study by means of transcriptome reannotation and differential expression analysis.

  Forestan C, Aiese Cigliano R, Farinati S, Lunardon A, Sanseverino W, Varotto S. Forestan C, et al. Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 27;6:30446. doi: 10.1038/srep30446. Sci Rep. 2016. PMID: 27461139 Free PMC article.

• Activities of starch synthetic enzymes and contents of endogenous hormones in waxy maize grains subjected to post-silking water deficit.

  Yang H, Gu X, Ding M, Lu W, Lu D. Yang H, et al. Sci Rep. 2019 May 7;9(1):7059. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-43484-0. Sci Rep. 2019. PMID: 31065011 Free PMC article.

• Characterization of FBA genes in potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) and expression patterns in response to light spectrum and abiotic stress.

  Li T, Hou X, Sun Z, Ma B, Wu X, Feng T, Ai H, Huang X, Li R. Li T, et al. Front Genet. 2024 Apr 12;15:1364944. doi: 10.3389/fgene.2024.1364944. eCollection 2024. Front Genet. 2024. PMID: 38686025 Free PMC article.

• Overexpression of OsGATA12 regulates chlorophyll content, delays plant senescence and improves rice yield under high density planting.

  Lu G, Casaretto JA, Ying S, Mahmood K, Liu F, Bi YM, Rothstein SJ. Lu G, et al. Plant Mol Biol. 2017 May;94(1-2):215-227. doi: 10.1007/s11103-017-0604-x. Epub 2017 Mar 24. Plant Mol Biol. 2017. PMID: 28342018

• Association mapping reveals the genetic architecture of tomato response to water deficit: focus on major fruit quality traits.

  Albert E, Segura V, Gricourt J, Bonnefoi J, Derivot L, Causse M. Albert E, et al. J Exp Bot. 2016 Dec;67(22):6413-6430. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erw411. J Exp Bot. 2016. PMID: 27856709 Free PMC article.

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

LinkOut - more resources

• Full Text Sources

  • Elsevier Science

• Other Literature Sources

  • scite Smart Citations

• Miscellaneous

  • NCI CPTAC Assay Portal