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Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants

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A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 March 2023) | Viewed by 9451

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Chunquan Zhu

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Guest Editor

China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Institute, Hangzhou 310006, China
Interests: rice; heavy metals; nutrient deficiency; physiological process

Dr. Yali Kong

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Guest Editor

State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang, China
Interests: abiotic stress; rhizo-microbiome; plant–microbe interactions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Wenhao Tian

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Guest Editor

China National Rice Research Institute (CNRRI), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Institute, Hangzhou 310006, China
Interests: plant nutrition; nutrient deficiency; mineral stress; plant stress physiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants often suffer from unfavorable or stressful environments, which can affect their growth and development. Abiotic stress, such as drought, extreme temperatures, nutrient deficiency, salinization, and excess of toxic metals such as Al, Cd, As, and Pb in the soil significantly inhibit plant growth and limit plant productivity in agricultural systems, which largely threaten food security for humans around the world. Plant cells are capable of sensing various environmental signals with different regulatory mechanisms, such as changes in gene expression, metabolism, and physiology activity, to cope with abiotic stress. Determining how plants sense stress signals and adapt to adverse environments is critical for the improvement of plant growth and agricultural productivity.

This Special Issue of Life aims to publish the latest research progress on the signals of molecular and stress sensors involved in plant response to abiotic stress and their underling mechanisms. In addition, research papers on advanced methods that help to improve plant growth and production under environmental stress are also encouraged. For this Special Issue, we welcome investigators to contribute original research articles and review papers.

Dr. Chunquan Zhu
Dr. Yali Kong
Dr. Wenhao Tian
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

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Keywords

abiotic stress
molecular signal
stress sensors
mechanism of plant response to abiotic stress

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 4232 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Chlorophyll Meter: A Precision Agricultural Decision-Making Tool for Nutrient Supply in Durum Wheat (Triticum turgidum L.) Cultivation under Drought Conditions

by Anteneh Agezew Melash, Bekir Bytyqi, Muhoja Sylivester Nyandi, Attila Miklós Vad and Éva Babett Ábrahám

Life 2023, 13(3), 824; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13030824 - 17 Mar 2023

Viewed by 1579

Abstract

How crop biodiversity adapts to drought conditions and enhances grain yield became the most important issue facing agronomists and plant breeders at the turn of the century. Variations in genetic response, inadequacy of nutrients in the soil, and insufficient access to nutrients are factors that aggravate drought stressors. The development of screening tools for identifying drought tolerance is important in the deployment of durum wheat varieties suited to drought-prone environments. An experiment was conducted to evaluate durum wheat varieties under a range of nutrient supplies in naturally imposed drought conditions. The treatments consisting of two nitrogen regimes (i.e., control and 60 kg ha⁻¹), four durum wheat varieties, and three types of nutrients (control, sulfur, and zinc) that were arranged in a split-split plot design with three replications. Both foliar-based sulfur and zinc fertilization were employed at the flag leaf stage, at a rate of 4 and 3-L ha⁻¹, respectively. The results showed a significant (p < 0.05) genetic variation in chlorophyll concentration, grain protein content, tillering potential, and leaf area index. Varieties that contained better leaf chlorophyll content had improved grain yield by about 8.33% under 60 kg/ha nitrogen. A combined application of nitrogen and zinc at flag leaf stage significantly improved grain yield of Duragold by about 21.3%. Leaf chlorophyll content was found to be a more important trait than spikes per m² to discriminate durum wheat varieties. Foliar application of sulfur increased the grain yield of drought-stressed plants by about 12.23%. Grain yield and protein content were strongly correlated with late-season SPAD readings. Significant (p < 0.05) correlation coefficients were obtained between normalized difference vegetation index, leaf area index, grain yield, and protein content with late-season chlorophyll content, revealing the importance of chlorophyll content in studying and identifying drought-tolerant varieties. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants)

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11 pages, 1791 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Characterizing the Potato Growing Regions in India Using Meteorological Parameters

by Vinay Bhardwaj, Shashi Rawat, Jagesh Tiwari, Salej Sood, Vijay Kumar Dua, Baljeet Singh, Mehi Lal, Vikas Mangal and PM Govindakrishnan

Life 2022, 12(10), 1619; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12101619 - 17 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2416

Abstract

Currently, the multi-location testing of advanced hybrids in India is carried out at 25 centers under the All India Co-ordinated Research Project on Potato (AICRP-P), which is spread across the country. These centres have been chosen to represent different potato growing regions based on soil and agronomic features. However, the reliable deployment of the newly bred varieties in different regions requires a scientific delineation of potato growing zones with homogenous climates. The present study was undertaken to develop homogenous zones in the Indian sub-continent based on the environmental parameters of the potato growing season. A total of 1253 locations were identified across the country as having a plausible potato growing season of at least 70 days with suitable thermal limits. Six variables including five meteorological parameters including Physiological days (P days), Growing degree days (GDD), Mean daily temperature, Mean night temperature and Mean daily incident solar radiation, together with altitude as the sixth variable, were used for Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) and the Principal Component Analysis by Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) technique to derive identical classes. The thematic map of the classes was overlaid on potato growing districts of India using ArcGIS 9.1 software. The study clearly depicted that the clustering technique can effectively delineate the target population of environments (TPE) for potato genotypes performing well at different testing environments in India. The study also identifies target locations for future focus on breeding strategies, especially the high night temperature class having a large expanse in India. This is also vital in view of the impending climate change situation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants)

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13 pages, 2672 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Transcriptome Analysis of Low-Temperature-Treated Tetraploid Yellow Actinidia chinensis Planch. Tissue Culture Plantlets

by Yipei Li, Zhiming Zhang, Xiaozhen Liu, Zhuo Wei, Xianang Zhang, Wen Bian, Shengxing Li and Hanyao Zhang

Life 2022, 12(10), 1573; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12101573 - 10 Oct 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1340

Abstract

The cold-resistant mechanism of yellow kiwifruit associated with gene regulation is poorly investigated. In this study, to provide insight into the causes of differences in low-temperature tolerance and to better understand cold-adaptive mechanisms, we treated yellow tetraploid kiwifruit ‘SWFU03’ tissue culture plantlets at low temperatures, used these plantlets for transcriptome analysis, and validated the expression levels of ten selected genes by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) analysis. A number of 1630 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, of which 619 pathway genes were up-regulated, and 1011 were down-regulated in the cold treatment group. The DEGs enriched in the cold tolerance-related pathways mainly included the plant hormone signal transduction and the starch and sucrose metabolism pathway. RT-qPCR analysis confirmed the expression levels of eight up-regulated genes in these pathways in the cold-resistant mutants. In this study, cold tolerance-related pathways (the plant hormone signal transduction and starch and sucrose metabolism pathway) and genes, e.g., CEY00_Acc03316 (abscisic acid receptor PYL), CEY00_Acc13130 (bZIP transcription factor), CEY00_Acc33627 (TIFY protein), CEY00_Acc26744 (alpha-trehalose-phosphate synthase), CEY00_Acc28966 (beta-amylase), CEY00_Acc16756 (trehalose phosphatase), and CEY00_Acc08918 (beta-amylase 4) were found. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants)

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20 pages, 3795 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Outcomes of Low-Temperature Stress on Biological Alterations within Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) Leaves

by Yanqing Wu, Xiang Cai and Yuhan Tang

Life 2022, 12(9), 1432; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12091432 - 14 Sep 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2143

Abstract

Pothos (Epipremnum aureum) is a commonly used indoor ornamental foliage, particularly in the middle and lower regions of the Yangtze River in China. It typically grows in the tropical area, and it is yet unclear whether prolonged winter temperatures cause plant damage and impact its development. In this study, the E. aureum chilling injury response was explored by maintaining it at 1 °C. Based on the acquired results, low-temperature stress (LTS) induced wilting and yellowing of leaves and diminished chloroplast pigment concentrations, particularly the chlorophyll b content. LTS also induced overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) within E. aureum and enhanced the relative electrical conductivity and superoxide dismutase activity. In addition, with prolonged LTS, the anatomical structure of E. aureum was severely damaged, resulting in a marked reduction in the photochemical activity of the photosystem Ⅱ reaction center and suppressed photosynthesis. Moreover, results of the transcriptomic analysis revealed that LTS induced the expression of genes involved in the α-linolenic acid metabolic pathway, plant hormone network, host plant–pathogen association, and MAPK axis, suggesting that LTS would activate its resistant response to cold stress. These results unraveled the physiological and transcriptomical response of E. aureum to chilling injury, which would lay a theoretical foundation for the cultivation of low-temperature-tolerant varieties of E. aureum. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants)

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Other

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5 pages, 1163 KiB

Open AccessBrief Report

Effects of Drought Stress on Peramine and Lolitrem B in Epichloë-Endophyte-Infected Perennial Ryegrass

by Weihu Lin, Chengfen Gao, Jianjun Wang, Wenbo Xu, Meining Wang, Miaomiao Li, Bihua Ma and Pei Tian

Life 2022, 12(8), 1207; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12081207 - 8 Aug 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1394

Abstract

Perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne) infected by Epichloë endophytes contains alkaloids that are responsible for toxicosis in many countries. Drought may greatly affect the alkaloids contents of symbionts. The E+ perennial ryegrass was grown in pots with different soil moisture conditions (15%, 30%, 45% and 60% relative saturation moisture content, RSMC) for four months in a greenhouse of Lanzhou University, and then, the aboveground tissues were collected. The levels of peramine and lolitrem B in all plant samples were determined. The results showed that the drought stress significantly (p < 0.05) increased the peramine concentrations of perennial ryegrass but did not affect the lolitrem B concentrations. In addition, the drought stress significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the plant height and dry matter of perennial ryegrass. In conclusion, drought stress affects the peramine concentration in the perennial ryegrass–endophyte symbiont but may not affect the lolitrem B concentration. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Updates on Abiotic Stress Signaling and Response in Plants)

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