GABA and Nutrient Deficiency

Mineral nutrients are an important aspect in supporting healthy functioning of diverse structural and metabolic processes of plant development. Plants absorb nutrients by roots from soil matrix and then mobilized to various aerial plant parts through vascular transport to perform specific functions allocated to them. Their precise concentration in plant system is crucial to promote growth. However, concentration below threshold would cause deficiency whereas above the threshold would induce toxicity of the nutrient concerned. Nutrient deficiency could remarkably impede multifarious developmental attributes such as growth, biomass, photosynthesis, respiration, proline content, anthocyanins, antioxidant system correlated with oxidative damage by accumulated reactive oxygen species thereby, restricting crop productivity. The present chapter depicts the affirmative role of different nutrients in promoting growth of healthy plant. However, we also presented the reports indicating the detrimental effects of deficiencies caused by various nutrients in limiting demand of major crop plants. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), a non-proteinogenic amino acid behaves as a potential tool in ameliorating different abiotic and biotic stress to sustain plant growth. However, research concerning the alleviating role of GABA under nutrient deficiency is new and limited data is available. Future investigation should give insights towards decoding interaction of GABA shunt pathway with different signalling mechanisms inculcating plant stress management.