Climate‑Resilience Maize: Heat stress, Signaling, and Molecular interventions

Abstract

Climate change and associated global warming result in an increase in global temperature, which causes a significant reduction in the overall yield of crop plants. Maize is the major cereal that is an integral component of feed and fodder across the globe. The continuous span of heat waves has affected maize production and productivity recently. Heat stress affects the integrity of the plasma membrane and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species. It also causes misfolded or unfolded proteins leading to disturbances in cell physiology and metabolism and, ultimately, cell death. The maize reproductive stage responsible for grain yield is highly susceptible to these temperature fluctuations. Therefore, the development of climate resilience maize is an urgent requirement. Understanding the less explored molecular mechanism of reproductive heat stress tolerance, signaling, and molecular mechanism events will provide an opportunity to develop heat-tolerant varieties of maize. Further, advanced breeding and a precise genome editing approach (CRISPR-Cas) will help to target the candidates for countering the unpredictable temperature rise. This review summarizes the stage-specific heat stress impact on maize, potential genes, transcription factors, and chaperones targets for heat stress tolerance in maize. Further, we have discussed heat stress sensing, associated molecular mechanisms, and approaches for developing maize climate resilience varieties.