State of the Art in Stress Physiology: Current Understanding and Future Opportunities.

Envrionmental stresses cause significant yield losses in major food crops across the globe. High temperature (heat) and limited water (drought) stress are among the most prominent stresses that limits yield and future genetic gains. Better understanding on how plants perceive these stresses and developing genetic and agronomic strategies to minimize impacts and increase reislience to stress will be critical for yield improvement and grain quality. This presentation will focus on our understanding of envrionmental stresses (particularly heat and drought) on crop plants as it relates to current status of research on (a) how plants perceieve envrionmental stress; (b) impacts on physiological proceeses and yield components; (c) mechanisms related to stress tolerance; and (d) opportunities for improving stress tolerance and managing stress. For each of the component discussion will focus on what is known and what is not known, and how basic physiology relates to applied crop management under field conditions.