With increasing frequency and severity of droughts in various parts of the world, agricultural productivity may suffer major setbacks. Among all the abiotic factors, drought is likely to have one of the most detrimental effects on soil organisms and plants. Drought is a major problem for crops because it limits the availability of water, and consequently nutrients which are crucial for plant growth and survival. This results in reduced crop yields, stunted growth, and even plant death, according to the severity and duration of the drought, the plant’s developmental stage, and the plant’s genetic background. The ability to withstand drought is a highly complex characteristic that is controlled by multiple genes, making it one of the most challenging attributes to study, classify, and improve. Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat (CRISPR) technology has opened a new frontier in crop enhancement, revolutionizing plant molecular breeding. The current review provides a general understanding of principles as well as optimization of CRISPR system, and presents applications on genetic enhancement of crops, specifically in terms of drought resistance and yield. Moreover, we discuss how innovative genome editing techniques can aid in the identification and modification of genes conferring drought tolerance.

Drought poses a significant threat to agricultural productivity, particularly affecting economic crops like tomatoes. To address this challenge, various alternatives have been explored, including the use of elicitors or biostimulants such as salicylic acid (SA). This study aims to assess the stimulatory action of SA in alleviating drought stress in tomato plants under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was designed with two main factors: water availability (controlled versus drought) and the foliar application of SA at four different concentrations ranging from 100 to 250 mg L⁻¹. The application of SA, particularly at a concentration of 250 mg L⁻¹, showed promising results in mitigating the adverse effects of drought stress followed by 200 mg L⁻¹. This was evidenced by the increased activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT). Gene expression analysis revealed optimal APX expression with SA application at concentrations of 200 mg L⁻¹ or 250 mg L⁻¹. Additionally, the application of SA at 250 mg L⁻¹ led to a high accumulation of bioactive compounds without compromising yield. Furthermore, SA application positively influenced both shoot and root weights, with the highest values observed at a concentration of 250 mg L⁻¹. While SA is known to enhance plant tolerance to abiotic stress, further research is needed to fully elucidate its biochemical, physiological, and molecular mechanisms in supporting plant tolerance to drought stress. Utilizing salicylic acid can help growers mitigate environmental stresses, enhancing tomato crop yield and quality. Integrating SA treatments into agriculture offers a sustainable alternative elicitor for ensuring food security under challenging climate conditions.

The tomato is one of the most important vegetables in the world. The demand for tomatoes is high in virtually any country, owing to their gastronomic versatility and nutritional and aromatic value. Drought, salinity, and inadequate temperature can be major factors in diminishing yield, affecting physiological and biochemical processes and altering various metabolic pathways, from the aggregation of low molecular–weight substances to the transcription of specific genes. Various biotechnological tools can be used to alter the tomato genes so that this species can more rapidly or better adapt to abiotic stress. These approaches range from the introgression of genes coding for specific enzymes for mitigating a prevailing stress to genetic modifications that alter specific metabolic pathways to help tomato perceive environmental cues and/or withstand adverse conditions. In recent years, environmental and social concerns and the high complexity of the plant response may increase the attention of applied plant biotechnology toward biomimetic strategies, generally defined as all the approaches that seek to develop more sustainable and acceptable strategies by imitating nature’s time-tested solutions. In this review, we provide an overview of some of the genetic sequences and molecules that were the objects of biotechnological intervention in tomato as examples of approaches to achieve tolerance to abiotic factors, improving existing nature-based mechanisms and solutions (biomimetic biotechnological approaches (BBA)). Finally, we discuss implications and perspectives within the GMO debate, proposing that crops modified with BBA should receive less stringent regulation.

Beneficial rhizobacteria can enhance plant growth and stress resilience through multiple, complementary mechanisms. In this study, we investigated the combined effects of Azotobacter chroococcum , Pseudomonas putida , and Bacillus subtilis on tomato plants subjected to drought stress. The primary objective was to assess whether a combined bacterial inoculation could mitigate the negative impacts of drought on tomato growth and productivity. We hypothesized that the consortium would act synergistically to improve drought tolerance by enhancing physiological performance and biochemical defense systems, including photosynthetic activity and antioxidant enzyme responses. The combined application of beneficial rhizobacteria significantly increased total chlorophyll content from 0.85 to 1.70 mg g⁻¹ FW and relative water content from 55.41 to 72.06%, while maintaining higher photosynthetic pigment levels than drought-stressed controls. Biochemical analyses revealed markedly higher activities of antioxidant enzymes, with superoxide dismutase increasing to 35.4 µmol min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ FW, catalase to 74.6 µmol min⁻¹ mg⁻¹ FW, and peroxidase to 0.89 µmol g⁻¹ FW, indicating more effective mitigation of drought-induced oxidative stress. All individual rhizobacterial treatments significantly increased tomato yield relative to drought stress, reaching 0.81, 0.86, and 0.88 kg plant⁻¹ under inoculation with (A) chroococcum , P. putida , and (B) subtilis , respectively. The bacterial consortium produced the highest yield of 0.94 kg plant⁻¹. Overall, these findings demonstrate that synergistic plant–microbe interactions can substantially enhance drought tolerance and productivity in tomato. Future studies should examine the long-term stability and field performance of microbial consortia, their interactions with native soil microbiomes, and their scalability for sustainable crop production in water-limited agroecosystems.