In recent years, the progressive escalation of climate change scenarios has emerged as a significant global concern. The threat to global food security posed by abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, waterlogging, temperature stress (heat stress, freezing, and chilling), and high heavy metal accumulation is substantial. The implementation of any of these stresses on agricultural land induces modifications in the morphological, biochemical, and physiological processes of plants, leading to diminished rates of germination, growth, photosynthesis, respiration, hormone and enzyme activity disruption, heightened oxidative stress, and ultimately, a reduction in crop productivity. It is anticipated that the frequency of these stresses will progressively escalate in the future as a result of a rise in climate change events. Therefore, it is crucial to develop productive strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of these challenges on the agriculture industry and improve crop resilience and yield. Diverse strategies have been implemented, including the development of cultivars that are resistant to climate change through the application of both conventional and modern breeding techniques. An additional application of the prospective and emerging technology of speed breeding is the acceleration of tolerance cultivar development. Additionally, plant growth regulators, osmoprotectants, nutrient and water management, planting time, seed priming, microbial seed treatment, and arbuscular mycorrhiza are regarded as effective methods for mitigating abiotic stresses. The application of biochar, kaolin, chitosan, superabsorbent, yeast extract, and seaweed extract are examples of promising and environmentally benign agronomic techniques that have been shown to mitigate the effects of abiotic stresses on crops; however, their exact mechanisms are still not yet fully understood. Hence, collaboration among researchers should be intensified to fully elucidate the mechanisms involved in the action of the emerging technologies. This review provides a comprehensive and current compilation of scientific information on emerging and current trends, along with innovative strategies to enhance agricultural productivity under abiotic stress conditions.

Tuta absoluta (the tomato pinworm) is an invasive insect pest with a highly damaging effect on tomatoes causing between 80 and 100% yield losses if left uncontrolled. Resistance to chemical pesticides have been reported in some T. absoluta populations. Insect microbiome plays an important role in the behavior, physiology, and survivability of their host. In a bid to explore and develop an alternative control method, the associated microbiome of this insect was studied. In this study, we unraveled the bacterial biota of T. absoluta larvae and adults by sequencing and analyzing the 16S rRNA V3-V4 gene regions using Illumina NovaSeq PE250. Out of 2,092,015 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) recovered from 30 samples (15 larvae and 15 adults), 1,268,810 and 823,205 ASVs were obtained from the larvae and adults, respectively. A total of 433 bacterial genera were shared between the adults and larval samples while 264 and 139 genera were unique to the larvae and adults, respectively. Amplicon metagenomic analyses of the sequences showed the dominance of the phylum Proteobacteria in the adult samples while Firmicutes and Proteobacteria dominated in the larval samples. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) comparison revealed the genera Pseudomonas, Delftia and Ralstonia to be differentially enriched in the adult samples while Enterococcus, Enterobacter, Lactococcus, Klebsiella and Wiessella were differentially abundant in the larvae. The diversity indices showed that the bacterial communities were not different between the insect samples collected from different geographical regions. However, the bacterial communities significantly differed based on the sample type between larvae and adults. A co-occurrence network of significantly correlated taxa revealed a strong interaction between the microbial communities. The functional analysis of the microbiome using FAPROTAX showed that denitrification, arsenite oxidation, methylotrophy and methanotrophy as the active functional groups of the adult and larvae microbiomes. Our results have revealed the core taxonomic, functional, and interacting microbiota of T. absoluta and these indicate that the larvae and adults harbor a similar but transitory set of bacteria. The results provide a novel insight and a basis for exploring microbiome-based biocontrol strategy for this invasive insect pest as well as the ecological significance of some of the identified microbiota is discussed.

Several economically important diseases of forest trees and agricultural crops in many parts of the world have been linked to the ascomycete fungal pathogen Thielaviopsis paradoxa. This study compared the growth rate of 41 isolates of T. paradoxa sourced from different hosts and two countries (Nigeria and Papua New Guinea (PNG)) under six temperature levels (22 °C, 25 °C, 30 °C, 32 °C, 34 °C and 35 °C). Phylogenetic relationships were obtained from the analysis of their nuclear ribosomal DNA internal transcribed sequence (ITS) data. While all the isolates from PNG and few from Nigeria grew optimally between 22 °C and 32 °C, the majority had their highest growth rate (2.9 cm/day) between 25 °C and 32 °C. Growth performances were generally low between 34 °C and 35 °C; no isolate from the sugar cane grew at these high temperatures. The oil palm isolate DA029 was the most resilient, with the highest growth rate (0.97 cm/day) at 35 °C. Phylogenetic analysis delineated five clusters: a very large clade which accommodates the majority (30 Nigerian and 3 PNG oil palm isolates) and four small clades containing two members each. To a large extent, the clustering pattern failed to address the temperature–isolate relationship observed. However, only the four small clades represent isolates with similar temperature tolerances. It is most likely that wider and robust analyses with more diverse isolates and genetic markers will provide better insight on thermal resilience of T. paradoxa. Additionally, future research to establish relationships between vegetative growth at different temperatures and of different pathogenicity and disease epidemiology merits being explored. The results might provide useful information for the formulation of effective management and control strategies against the pathogen, especially in this era of climate change.