Plant-virus-abiotic stress interactions: A complex interplay

Abstract

Under field conditions, plants are subjected to a wide array of biotic and abiotic stresses. These are detrimental to the survival of plants and adversely affects global crop productivity. Changing climate has led to elevated temperatures and unpredicted whether patterns across the world leading to suboptimal crop performance. This is coupled by the emergence of novel pathogen strains which are resistant to anti-pathogenic agents. The situation is even worse in case of viruses where antiviral agents for controlling viral diseases in plants is lacking. The explosion of international trade has helped in the sharing of surplus resources from one location to the other and benefitted the economy of most countries however, this has also resulted in the spread of viruses and other pathogens. Recent years have seen a paradigm shift in the research methodology with combined stress gaining major attention instead of solitary stress. Viruses influence a plant’s response to various abiotic stresses, similarly, abiotic stress imposition has a great effect on viral disease progression. The recent developments associated with plant-virus-abiotic stress interactions along with the way forward to tackle such stresses has been discussed in the present review.