Molecular Strategies for Confronting Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Tomatoes

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most widely cultivated and economically important crops globally. However, its productivity and quality are severely hampered by different abiotic stresses, including drought, lack of essential nutrients, salinity, and extreme temperatures. These stresses trigger a cascade of molecular and physiological changes that adversely affect the growth of the plant and yield. Recent advances in molecular biology and biotechnology offer promising strategies to enhance tomato tolerance to these abiotic stresses. Research on abiotic stresses is limited because defensive feedback mechanisms to abiotic factors require the regulation of changes that activate numerous genes and pathways, which are not yet thoroughly explored. The involvement of these genes highlights the complexity of plant stress response and adaptation. An integrative approach can begin by targeting the multigenic nature of plant responses to abiotic stress, which involves genomic sequences, protein organisation, transcripts, collections of transcriptomes specific to stress and cellular conditions, and screenings of mutants. Therefore, this chapter focusses on the metabolomics, proteomics, and genomics of tomatoes under abiotic stress.