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Agronomy
Special Issues
Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress
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Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Breeding and Genetics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 4441

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Xiaojiao Han

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Institute of Subtropical Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Hangzhou 311400, China
Interests: abiotic stress; physiological mechanism; molecular mechanism; gene regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yikai Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 311400, China
Interests: crop physiology; root; nutrient management; abiotic stress
Prof. Dr. Huizhe Chen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology and Breeding, China National Rice Research Institute, Hangzhou 311400, China
Interests: agro-environmental quality and product safety; abiotic stress; crop physiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global warming and extreme climatic events such as high temperatures, low temperatures, droughts, floods, ultraviolet or strong light, and persistent strong winds have always been hot topics and have increasingly attracted the attention of scientific researchers. Furthermore, seawater intrusion in coastal areas may lead to soil salinization, and organic and heavy metal pollution caused by anthropogenic activities is increasing worldwide. The imbalance of mineral elements in soil also has a serious impact on plant growth. The above-mentioned natural disasters and soil pollution have caused serious damage to the growth, development, and reproduction of various plants. How plants deal with adverse environments is a fundamental biological issue that needs to be better understood. Through long-term evolutionary processes, plants have evolved to possess a series of specific regulation pathways in physiological and molecular mechanisms to deal with adverse environments.

This Special Issue on abiotic stress, physiological mechanisms, molecular mechanisms, and gene regulation aims to compile comprehensive reviews and original research articles that cover the latest novel discoveries on the interactions between plants and abiotic stresses such as droughts, floods, salt, heavy metals, light, mineral nutrition, microplastics, extreme temperatures, and mechanical damage.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

(1) Molecular and physiological mechanisms on plant abiotic stress tolerance.
(2) Integration of transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics in abiotic stress response.
(3) The genetic transformation of plants adapting to severe abiotic stresses.
(4) The breeding of plant varieties with strong stress resistance.

Dr. Xiaojiao Han
Dr. Yikai Zhang
Prof. Dr. Huizhe Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • abiotic stress
  • physiological mechanism
  • molecular mechanism
  • woody plants
  • crops

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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31 pages, 23602 KB  
Article
Molecular Mechanisms of Drought Stress Response in Medicago ruthenica: Insights from Transcriptome Analysis and Functional Validation of Key Genes
by Yingtong Mu, Kefan Cao, Jingshi Lu, Yutong Zhang and Fengling Shi
Agronomy 2026, 16(7), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16070707 - 27 Mar 2026
Viewed by 351
Abstract
Drought stress severely limits plant growth and productivity, yet the molecular basis of drought tolerance and post-drought recovery remains incompletely understood in many forage legumes. Medicago ruthenica is a perennial legume native to arid and cold regions and exhibits strong drought resilience. Results: [...] Read more.
Drought stress severely limits plant growth and productivity, yet the molecular basis of drought tolerance and post-drought recovery remains incompletely understood in many forage legumes. Medicago ruthenica is a perennial legume native to arid and cold regions and exhibits strong drought resilience. Results: We integrated key physiological traits related to stomatal regulation, photosynthesis, osmotic adjustment and antioxidant defense with RNA-seq across four stages (well-watered control, CK; drought for 9 days, D9; drought for 12 days, D12; and rewatering for 4 days, RW). Drought triggered stage-dependent physiological shifts, and transcriptome profiling identified >3000 drought- and rewatering-responsive genes enriched in primary metabolism, redox homeostasis and hormone signaling. WGCNA highlighted two drought-associated modules (MEcyan and MEcoral1) and prioritized three hub transcription factors for functional validation: 861 (AP2/ERF), 22 (WRKY) and 89 (bZIP). Overexpression of each gene in tobacco improved drought tolerance, as indicated by enhanced growth/root traits, increased osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant enzyme activities, and reduced membrane damage. Conclusions: Together, these results provide an integrated view of drought stress response and recovery in M. ruthenica and identify 861, 22 and 89 as candidate regulatory genes for engineering drought resilience in legumes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress)
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25 pages, 3151 KB  
Article
Deacclimation-Driven Reprogramming of Water Transport and Osmotic Protection in Winter Oilseed Rape
by Magdalena Rys, Jan Bocianowski, Barbara Jurczyk, Pasquale Luca Curci and Piotr Waligórski
Agronomy 2026, 16(5), 537; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16050537 - 28 Feb 2026
Viewed by 286
Abstract
Winter oilseed rape achieves frost tolerance through cold acclimation, which develops naturally in autumn in response to low but non-freezing temperatures. However, ongoing climate change has led to an increasing instability in winter temperatures, with more frequent warm breaks. Such temperature fluctuations can [...] Read more.
Winter oilseed rape achieves frost tolerance through cold acclimation, which develops naturally in autumn in response to low but non-freezing temperatures. However, ongoing climate change has led to an increasing instability in winter temperatures, with more frequent warm breaks. Such temperature fluctuations can induce deacclimation, resulting in a partial or complete loss of frost tolerance and reduced winter survival. Water management is a critical determinant of plant survival under such conditions, yet its regulation during the acclimation–deacclimation transition remains incompletely understood. This study investigated tissue-specific changes in key components of water management in winter oilseed rape subjected to non-acclimated, cold-acclimated, and deacclimated conditions. Proline accumulation, abscisic acid content in plant tissue and cell sap, and the expression of aquaporin genes BnPIP2 and BnTIP1 were analyzed in leaves, root necks, and roots. Cold acclimation induced a strong accumulation of proline and ABA, accompanied by marked downregulation of aquaporin expression in all tested tissue. Deacclimation resulted in partial reverse of proline and ABA. Aquaporins expression demonstrated tissue-specific recovery, showing increases in all tissue compared to cold-acclimated plants. Our findings demonstrate that coordinated actions of integrated water transport, osmotic adjustment, and hormonal signaling in regulating water balance and frost tolerance during winter temperature fluctuations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress)
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25 pages, 4275 KB  
Article
Deciphering the Mechanisms Underlying Enhanced Drought Tolerance in Autotetraploid Apple ‘Redchief’: Physiological, Biochemical, Molecular, and Anatomical Insights
by Monika Działkowska, Danuta Wójcik, Krzysztof Klamkowski, Agnieszka Marasek-Ciołakowska and Małgorzata Podwyszyńska
Agronomy 2026, 16(2), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16020139 - 6 Jan 2026
Viewed by 607
Abstract
It is generally believed that plant polyploids exhibit greater tolerance to abiotic stress conditions than their diploid counterparts. The aim of the present research was to investigate the mechanisms underlying enhanced drought tolerance in the autotetraploid apple ‘Redchief’ as compared to its diploid [...] Read more.
It is generally believed that plant polyploids exhibit greater tolerance to abiotic stress conditions than their diploid counterparts. The aim of the present research was to investigate the mechanisms underlying enhanced drought tolerance in the autotetraploid apple ‘Redchief’ as compared to its diploid counterpart. The study was conducted on potted plants over two growing seasons, and simulated drought conditions were induced by limiting or withholding irrigation. Under drought stress, the responses of the clone ‘Redchief’ 4x-25 and its diploid counterpart were compared at physiological, biochemical, and molecular levels. In addition, changes in leaf anatomical structure, stomatal characteristics, and parameters related to growth dynamics were examined in drought-challenged plants. The results indicate that apple tetraploids have a greater ability to adapt to water-deficit conditions than diploids. Under drought stress, apple tetraploids exhibited better physiological and biochemical parameters and maintained a greater capacity for continued growth than diploids. We propose that the primary mechanism underlying the increased drought tolerance in apple tetraploids is a faster and more efficient activation of antioxidant defenses and proline accumulation compared to diploids. The high plasticity of anatomical traits in apple tetraploids in response to adverse environmental conditions was also demonstrated. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress)
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15 pages, 1952 KB  
Article
Unraveling the NRAMP Gene Family: Aegilops tauschii’s Prominent Barrier Against Metal Stress
by Hongying Li, Yibo Li, Fuqiang Yang, Xiaolin Liang, Yifan Ding, Ning Wang and Xiaojiao Han
Agronomy 2025, 15(8), 1919; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15081919 - 8 Aug 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1234
Abstract
The natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (NRAMPs) gene family represents a group of membrane transporter proteins with wide distribution in plants. This family of membrane transporters plays a pivotal role in mediating plant responses to metal stress by coordinating ion transport processes [...] Read more.
The natural resistance-associated macrophage proteins (NRAMPs) gene family represents a group of membrane transporter proteins with wide distribution in plants. This family of membrane transporters plays a pivotal role in mediating plant responses to metal stress by coordinating ion transport processes and maintaining cellular metal homeostasis, thereby effectively mitigating the detrimental effects of metal ion stress on plant growth and development. This study conducted a comprehensive genome-wide analysis of the NRAMP gene family in A. tauschii using integrated bioinformatics approaches, as well as the expression pattern when exposed to heavy metal-induced stress. By means of phylogenetic investigation, eleven AetNRAMP proteins were categorized into five distinct subgroups. Quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis revealed that the majority of NRAMP genes exhibited marked differential expression patterns under specific stress treatments. Subsequently, yeast cells were employed to validate the functions of AetNRAMP1 and AetNRAMP3. It was confirmed that AetNRAMP1 functioned in copper transport, and AetNRAMP3 showed an increase in its expression level under manganese stress. These findings establish a molecular foundation for elucidating the functional specialization of NRAMP gene family members in A. tauschii’s heavy metal detoxification pathways, providing critical genetic evidence for their stress-responsive regulatory networks. Nevertheless, significant knowledge gaps persist regarding its functions in A. tauschii. Research on metal stress resistance in this wheat progenitor species may establish a theoretical foundation for enhancing wheat tolerance and developing improved cultivars. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress)
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Review

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21 pages, 16761 KB  
Review
Alternative Splicing Responses to Plant–Biotic Interactions and Abiotic Stresses in Plants
by Yuxia Yao, Bo Wang, Yuna Pan, Yushi Lu, Wenjin Yu and Changxia Li
Agronomy 2026, 16(3), 298; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy16030298 - 24 Jan 2026
Viewed by 783
Abstract
Alternative splicing (AS) is a crucial post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes. Plants can cope with complex environmental changes through AS. In this paper, we found that AS plays an important role in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. First, we note that [...] Read more.
Alternative splicing (AS) is a crucial post-transcriptional regulatory mechanism in eukaryotes. Plants can cope with complex environmental changes through AS. In this paper, we found that AS plays an important role in plant responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. First, we note that under biotic stress (e.g., disease, insects), AS regulates the expression of immune-related genes and produces splice variants with different functions to regulate plant disease resistance. Second, under abiotic stress (e.g., drought, cold, heat, salt), plants generate functional splice variants via different AS events and change the original function of the gene. At the same time, we also found that splicing factors and regulatory elements, such as serine/arginine-rich proteins associated with AS, are also involved in the regulation of the expression of related resistance genes to improve plant stress resistance. Therefore, this review summarizes the recent progress on the main types of AS events, the functions of related splicing factors, and the action routes and regulatory mechanisms of splice variants. We hope to provide a reference for further understanding of the stress response mechanism of plant AS and provide a theoretical basis for the breeding of resistant varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Under the Abiotic Stress)
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