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REVIEW article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1403922
This article is part of the Research Topic Metabolomic Changes Caused by Biotic and Abiotic Stress in Fabaceae Plants View all articles

Lentil adaptation to drought stress: response, tolerance, and breeding approaches

Provisionally accepted
Md Mahmud Al Noor Md Mahmud Al Noor 1Md. Tahjib-Ul-Arif Md. Tahjib-Ul-Arif 2,3*S.M. Abdul Alim S.M. Abdul Alim 1Md Mohimenul Islam Md Mohimenul Islam 1Md. Toufiq Hasan Md. Toufiq Hasan 2MD A. BABAR MD A. BABAR 4Mohammad A. Hossain Mohammad A. Hossain 2Zilhas Ahmed Jewel Zilhas Ahmed Jewel 5Yoshiyuki Murata Yoshiyuki Murata 3Mohammad Golam Mostofa Mohammad Golam Mostofa 6*
  • 1 Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 2 Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
  • 3 Okayama University, Okayama, Okayama, Japan
  • 4 University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States
  • 5 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalganj, Bangladesh
  • 6 Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) is a cool season legume crop that plays vital roles in food and nutritional security, mostly in least developed countries. Lentils are often cultivated in dry and semidry regions, where the primary abiotic factor is drought stress which negatively impacts lentil growth and development, resulting in a reduction of plant production. To withstand against drought-induced multiple negative effects, lentil plants evolved a variety of adaptation strategies that can be classified within three broad categories of drought tolerance mechanisms (i.e., escape, avoidance, and tolerance). Lentil adapts to drought by the modulation of various traits in the root system, leaf architecture, canopy structure, branching, anatomical features, and flowering process. Furthermore, the activation of certain defensive biochemical pathways as well as genes or transcriptional factors are linked to lentil drought tolerance. Plant breeders are continuously working by employing conventional and mutation breeding approaches to develop lentil varieties that can withstand drought, however, little progress has been made in developing drought-tolerant lentil using genomics-assisted technologies. This review summarizes the current understanding on the morpho-physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms of lentil adaptation to drought stress. It also explored how omics-assisted breeding approaches can be utilized to develop lentil varieties that are resilient to drought stress.

    Keywords: abiotic stress, morphology, Pulse crop, Plant Growth, omics, Water-deficit

    Received: 20 Mar 2024; Accepted: 05 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Noor, Tahjib-Ul-Arif, Alim, Islam, Hasan, BABAR, Hossain, Jewel, Murata and Mostofa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Md. Tahjib-Ul-Arif, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
    Mohammad Golam Mostofa, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.