Various plant’s responses and strategies to cope with the water deficit: A review

Abstract

When plants themselves get exposed to water stress especially water deficit, plants have to face the negative consequences on their morpho-physiological traits in various ways. In the light of Climate Change phenomenon across the world, drought is the most frequently occurring natural disaster in the tropical regions especially in the arid and semi-arid belts and substantially decline the yield of crops. Plants too have evolved various strategies at morphological, physiological, biochemical and molecular levels to encounter other abiotic stresses as well. Some species are better able to adapt than others and various anatomical, structural and biochemical mechanisms account for acclimation. Therefore, this review is confined to effect of water stress i.e., deficit stress on the plants and the mechanism of drought resistance in plants on a morphological, physiological and molecular basis and also on recent studies which suggest that changes in gene expression at the level of transcriptional and translational control of protein synthesis are involved [1].