Wheat quality under global climate change: consequences, mechanisms, and countermeasures

Environmental factors such as temperature, water, salinity, and elevated CO2 have complex effects on wheat grain development and grain quality formation. Impaired crop growth and yield reduction by these stresses have been revealed from the whole plant to the molecular level, but information on such stress-induced changes in developing grains is insufficient in the literature. A comprehensive understanding of the impact of abiotic stresses on grain quality is critical for coping with complicated global climate change. Thus, the present review discusses how far different types of stresses, mainly heat, cold, drought, waterlogging, salinity, and elevated CO2, can alter the wheat grain composition and quality. The underlying mechanisms on quality affected by heat and drought are explained by integration of data from recent proteomic and transcriptomic studies. In addition, developments in integrated approaches such as fertilization application and exogenous regulator spraying for alleviating grain quality deterioration in wheat under abiotic stresses are discussed. Such information is needed to develop wheat more capable of adapting to global climate change.