Abscisic Acid Mediated Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants

Abstract

Abiotic stress is one of the major environmental stresses that decrease crop growth and yield even in irrigated soils worldwide. An important plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a vital role in addressing various stresses, such as thermal or heat stress, high salinity level, heavy metal stress, low temperature, drought, and stress on radiation. Its role is well explained in different processes for development, including germination of seed, stomata closure, and dormancy. Abscisic acid works through alteration of the gene expression levels and subsequently analyzing the cis and trans-regulatory components for receptive promoters. It is considered to have an interaction with the signaling elements of processes taking part in stress response and seed development. In general, a plant can be vulnerable or tolerant to stress when the correlated actions of different stress-reacting genes are considered. Many transcription factors are required for the regulation of expression of abscisic acid-responsive genes through interacting with their specific cis-acting components. Therefore, the mechanism behind it should be understood to make the plants stress-tolerant. This review explains the significance and function of ABA signaling concerning specific stress, the management of abscisic acid biosynthesis, and transcription factors (TFs) associated with stress tolerance.