Mapping QTLs for Abiotic Stress

Climate change has triggered several major abiotic stresses, which are continuously influencing our current agricultural production. The major abiotic stresses include salt, drought, heat, and cold stresses interfering plant production potential by damaging various morphological, physiological, and biochemical processes of plants causing reduction in yield globally. In order to cope with these gregarious factors, quantitative trait loci (QTL) approach is being extensively utilized by the plant breeders and has achieved fruitful results. Still there are many gaps that need to be filled by the usage of this technique for further acclimatizing the plants to tolerate or resist abiotic stresses. Various plant processes that are affected by abiotic stresses and how QTL mapping has helped the researchers to identify specific genomic regions associated with abiotic tolerance are elaborated. In this chapter, the potential of QTL mapping for improving of crops and previously identified literature regarding QTLs for different plant traits against abiotic stresses have been enlisted.