Grafting in Pepper to Overcome Drought, Salinity, and High Temperature

Abstract

Since the twentieth century, pepper production and consumption have increased worldwide. However, pepper-harvested area decreases every year, which is partly associated with climate change effects such as extreme temperatures, salinity, and drought. These abiotic stresses affect pepper plants by limiting photosynthesis, growth, and development; increasing reactive oxygen species (ROS); and blocking metabolic processes, among others, leading to reduced production and fruit quality. Grafting rises as an effective technique to cultivate in unfavorable environmental conditions, because crops yields increase when tolerant rootstocks are employed due to vanished stress perception in the scion. Tolerant rootstocks favor water and nutrients uptake, photosynthesis maintenance, antioxidant system and hormonal signaling activation, and gene expression regulation, facilitated by the bidirectional signal transmission between rootstock and scion. This chapter summarizes the latest advances in pepper abiotic stress mitigation by grafting: how tolerance is achieved with the help of tolerant pepper rootstocks under heat, salt, and water stress.