Photosynthetic Response of Plants Under Different Abiotic Stresses: A Review

Plants encounter various abiotic stresses due to their sessile nature which include heavy metals, salt, drought, nutrient deficiency, light intensity, pesticide contamination, as well as extreme temperatures. These stresses impose major constraints limiting crop production and food security worldwide. Abiotic stresses primarily reduce the photosynthetic efficiency of plants, due to their negative consequences on chlorophyll biosynthesis, performance of the photosystems, electron transport mechanisms, gas exchange parameters, and many others. A better understanding of the photochemistry of plants under these abiotic stresses can help in the development of pragmatic interventions for managing these stresses. Interestingly, in this review, we provide an overview of insight into different mechanisms affecting the photosynthetic ability of plants in relation to these abiotic factors. The present review describes how different abiotic stresses can pose deleterious impacts on plant photosynthetic machinery including cellular membranes, cell division and cell elongation, biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments, as well as electron transport chain. It is important to understand the detrimental impacts of various abiotic stresses for better stress management because a comprehensive understanding of plant responses has pragmatic implication for remedies and management.