Overview of Signal Transduction in Plants Under Salt and Drought Stresses

Drought and salt stresses are among abiotic stresses that hinder plants from reaching their maximum productivity and thus menacing food security by reducing crop yield worldwide. The mechanisms that stressors affect the plants are very complicated. To cope with environmental stresses, evolutionary processes have been developed through natural selection, which enables plants to integrate molecular and cellular mechanisms to develop adaptive responses. Mechanism by which plant perceive stress signals and further transmission of perceived signals to cell machinery has long been of concern and is still an ongoing point of discussion. In the last decade, introduction of molecular techniques has been used to unravel the mechanism of perception and transmission of stress signals along with plant’s adaptive responses. Understanding the physiological and molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress response and tolerance mechanisms may advance our knowledge about candidate genes involving in genetic or epigenetic aspects of stress response, which are essential for improving stress tolerance in plants. In this chapter, the most recent literature on the mechanisms involving in salt and drought stress signal transduction including their signaling pathways and signaling components are used to best elaborate underlying stress response mechanisms involved in salt and drought stresses.