REVIEW Integrated genomics, physiology and breeding approaches for improving drought tolerance in crops

The Author(s) 2012. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Drought is one of the most serious production constraint for world agriculture and is projected to worsen with anticipated climate change. Inter-disciplinary scien-tists have been trying to understand and dissect the mechanisms of plant tolerance to drought stress using a variety of approaches; however, success has been limited. Modern genomics and genetic approaches coupled with advances in precise phenotyping and breeding methodol-ogies are expected to more effectively unravel the genes and metabolic pathways that confer drought tolerance in crops. This article discusses the most recent advances in plant physiology for precision phenotyping of drought response, a vital step before implementing the genetic and molecular-physiological strategies to unravel the comple