Abiotic stressors such as drought, salination, flooding, cold, heat, ultraviolet
radiation, heavy metals, etc., are the paramount cause that reduce crop yield and
weaken universal food security as they strongly affect plant growth, physiology, and
metabolism. Plants frequently face a large number of environmental stressors and
usually generate common responses to deal with these unfavorable conditions.
However, crop improvement against abiotic stressors is one of the urgent priorities that
need undivided attention, while a huge increase in demand for various plant-derived
products will rise in the near future owing to the rising human population. As
conventional methods for crop enhancement have limitations, therefore an epoch of
omic research has shot up with new and encouraging perspectives in breeding to
improve the crops against abiotic stress. In this light, the genomic, proteomic, and
metabolomic approaches are emerging as powerful tools for the identification and
description of cellular networks through which stress perception, signal transduction,
and defensive responses are exhibited. Further advances in omic techniques have
permitted a comprehensive investigation of crop genomes and have magnified the
perception of convolution of the mechanisms controlling abiotic stressor tolerance and
the adaptation to mitigate them. This chapter will give an overview of genomics,
proteomics, and metabolic approaches and their usage to enhance the possibility of
producing abiotic stressor tolerant crops.
Keywords: Abiotic stress, Genome, Metabolome, Proteome
