Grafting as a tool to improve tolerance of vegetables to abiotic stresses: Thermal stress, water stress and organic pollutants

Due to limited availability of arable land and the high market demand for vegetables around the world, cucurbit (cucumber, melon, and watermelon) and solanaceous (eggplant, pepper and tomato) crops are frequently cultivated under unfavourable soil and environmental conditions. These include thermal stress, drought and flooding, and contamination by persistent organic pollutants. Plants exposed exhibit various physiological and pathological disorders leading to stunted growth and severe loss in fruit quality and yield. One way to avoid or reduce losses in production caused by adverse soil chemical and physical conditions and environmental stresses in vegetables would be to graft them onto rootstocks capable of reducing the effect of external stresses on the shoot. This review gives an actual overview how grafting can alleviate the adverse effects of environmental stresses on vegetable's crop performance at agronomical, physiological, and biochemical levels. Implications for the selection and breeding of stress-tolerant rootstocks are discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.