With devastating increase in population there is a great necessity to increase crop productivity of staple crops but the productivity is greatly affected by various abiotic stress factors such as drought, salinity. An attempt has been made a brief account on abiotic stress resistance of major cereal crops viz. In spite of good successes obtained on physiological and use molecular biology, the benefits of this high cost technology are beyond the reach of developing countries. This review discusses several morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and molecular mechanisms of major cereal crops related to the adaptation of these crop to abiotic stress factors. It discusses the effect of abiotic stresses on physiological processes such as flowering, grain filling and maturation and plant metabolisms viz. photosynthesis, enzyme activity, mineral nutrition, and respiration. Though significant progress has been attained on the physiological, biochemical basis of resistance to abiotic stress factors, very little progress has been achieved to increase productivity under sustainable agriculture. Therefore, there is a great necessity of inter-disciplinary research to address this issue and to evolve efficient technology and its transfer to the farmers' fields.
Keywords: ABA, abscisic acid; AM, arbuscular mycorrhiza; APRI, alternate partial root zone irrigation; ASI, anthesis-silking interval; CAT, catalase; CGR, crop growth rate; DRI, drought resistance index; GA, gibberelic acid; GPX, glutathione peroxidase; GR, glutathione reductase; GST, glutathione-S transferase; HSP, heat shock protein; LWP, leaf water potential; MAS, marker assisted selection; MDA, malonaldehyde; MT, more tillage; MnSOD, manganese superoxide dismutase; NAR, net assimilation rate; NDVI, normalized difference vegetation index; NT, no tillage; OA, osmotic adjustment; PEG, poly-ethylene glycol; POX, peroxidase; QTL, quantitative trait loci; ROS, reactive oxygen species; RUE, radiation use efficiency; SA, salicylic acid; SPAW, soil plant air water; TE, transpiration efficiency; TTC, triphenyltetrazolium chloride; VDAC, voltage dependent anion channel; WSI, water stress index; WUE, water use efficiency; abiotic stress; biochemical mechanism; cereals; molecular mechanism; physiology; tolerance.