RESISTANCE OF WHEAT CROPS TO BIOTIC ENVIRONMENTAL STRESS

Biotic factors such as attacks by various pathogens (fungi, bacteria, oomycetes, nematodes) and insect pests cause loss of major crop plants worldwide. Plants have developed various mechanisms to overcome these threats of biotic stresses. They sense the external stress environment, get stimulated and then generate appropriate cellular responses. They do this by stimuli received from the sensors located on the cell surface or cytoplasm and transferred to the transcriptional machinery situated in the nucleus, with the help of various signal transduction pathways. This leads to differential transcriptional changes making the plant tolerant against the stress. The signaling pathways act as a connecting link and play an important role between sensing the stress environment and generating an appropriate biochemical and physiological response.