Abstract
Breeding of crop plants in the 21st century needs consciousness and awareness of climate change. For instance, both biotic and abiotic stresses need attention of breeders in order to breed crops showing resistance/tolerance to these stresses in a changing climate scenario. In developing countries, drought is the major abiotic stress and is already limiting crop productivity in several species. This tendency is going to worsen the situation in the years to come (Varshney et al. 2011a). Enhancing crop productivity in resource-poor dry land conditions is a formidable challenge. Conserving resources through management practices and engineering plants for superior extraction of these resources coupled with an increased efficiency of resource utilization deserve emphasis. Though resource conservation through management practices are equally important, development of superior resource use efficiency as a seed-based technology always has greater acceptance and adaptability. Roots, which are underground hidden parts of plants, are considered as first plant organs to be exposed, as well as to respond in stresses. However, among several parts of the plant, roots have received little attention of researchers so far despite their major role in plant–soil interactions (Sheshshayee et al. 2011). Thus, they seem to hold the key for the next plant breeding revolution, leading to improved crop productivity in environmentally challenged situations. Recent advancements in plant genomics are certainly of help in crop improvement efforts (Varshney et al. 2005) and genomics-assisted breeding applications such as marker-assisted selection (MAS) have been…