Adaptation to abiotic stress factors and their effects on cereal and psuedocereal grain quality

Cereals and pseudocereals act as staple food crops in various regions of the world, with major contribution to human energy and nutrition. They are consumed primarily as bread, porridge, pancakes, or as whole grain alternatives. Quality of these crops is either related to the end uses or to their content of nutritionally important components. Abiotic stress has an influence on the physiological development of the plant, with in general a negative impact on yield, by severe effects from certain stresses on specific timings of the growth cycle. The impact on plant development also influences the uptake, transport, and storage of various compounds in the plant, and thus, also grain quality. Emerging novel technologies allow comparisons of large sets of phenotypic and genotypic data and development of markers useful for selection of suitable genotypes. Pyramiding genes for tolerance to a combination of abiotic stresses is a necessity for crops securing food to the coming generations.