Polyamines for sustainable plant growth and production under adverse environmental conditions

Abstract

Abiotic stresses are the serious threat for food security under climate change scenario across geographic boundaries. Production of food to meet the demands of an ever-increasing population is one of the biggest challenges to the agriculture folks. Undoubtedly, environmental stresses severely limit the development and productivity of plant as a sequel of climate change. In spite of the significant research advancements for the induction of various tolerance mechanisms in plants, sensitive plants do fail under climate extremes. Despite repeated claims that climate resilient strains yield better than their counter environments, the evidence is less conclusive than usually claimed. However, the plants have innately developed some tolerance mechanism to overcome abiotic stresses, and one such example is the synthesis of polyamines (conjugated and bound forms) besides promoting the oxidation of polyamines. Polyamines (PAs) are a group of phytohormone-like aliphatic polycations, ubiquitous to all living organisms. Research evidences on loss-of-function mutants and over-expressing PA-biosynthetic genes indicated that PAs are actively engaged in cell growth, development and respond to diverse abiotic stresses. Several opportunities and advantages do exist with the exogenous supply of Pas, and in this chapter, an updated information on polyamines, their synthesis, implication in different abiotic stress tolerance in plants, mechanisms in plant abiotic stresses tolerance, cross talk among polyamines, abscisic acid, and nitric oxide are discussed. Particular attention has been given to the interaction between PAs and ion channels, NO, ROS, and other adaptive responses under stress environments. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021.