Understanding molecular alphabets of the plant abiotic stress responses

Abiotic stresses elicit complex cellular responses. This complexity made ma ny believe for a long time that tolerance to abiotic stresses cannot be exp erimentally manipulated. Fortunately, this contention has proven wrong in r ecent years. Considered once to be an arduous task, genetic engineering for increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses has been achieved to an extent. T his change has come due to the progress made in exploring and understanding plant abiotic stress responses at whole-plant, physiological, biochemical, cellular and molecular levels. Plant molecular biology is a fast-expanding research frontier of our times. This important branch of science has given several clues in understanding how plants respond under stressful regimes. A great deal of success has been achieved in unveiling gene/protein altera tions associated with preparation of plants against the abiotic stresses. I n parallel, major progress has been made in the characterization of stress- related promoters and transcription factors as well as stress signalling co mponents. This article takes a broad look at molecular responses of plants to different abiotic stresses.