Articles

One of the significant environmental stressors that reduce plant growth and agricultural productivity is drought stress which occurs mainly in economically significant crops like Brassica species. Dehydration-Responsive Element Binding Protein 2A (DREB2A) is an important protein that helps in the regulation of plant reactions to drought through the regulation of stress-inducible gene transcription. This review provides an overview of drought stress responses in Brassica species, including major physiological and molecular adaptations to drought stress that contribute to stress tolerance. A particular attention is paid to the structure, classification, and functional value of the DREB gene family and the role of DREB2A and its effects on the activation of downstream protection. DREB2A genes in the genomes of Brassica juncea and Brassica rapa are also identified and bioinformatics tools are used to analyze sequences, phylogenetic relationships, characterize proteins, analyze promoters and do gene expression profiling. These genome-wide understanding can be used in the development of drought resistant Brassica varieties and sustainable crop improvement strategies.