Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
12.4
6.6
Journals
Antioxidants
Special Issues
Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations,...
share announcement

Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations, and Applications

A special issue of Antioxidants (ISSN 2076-3921). This special issue belongs to the section "ROS, RNS and RSS".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2026) | Viewed by 3853

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rong Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stress; climate change
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stresses—such as heat, cold, drought, salinity, and heavy metal toxicity—pose significant threats to global agricultural productivity and ecosystem stability. A critical line of defense against these challenges lies in the antioxidant systems of plants, which neutralize reactive oxygen species (ROS) and maintain redox homeostasis under stress conditions.

This Special Issue aims to collate cutting-edge research and reviews that unravel the multifaceted roles of antioxidant defense mechanisms in plant stress tolerance, from molecular regulation to field-level applications. We invite contributions addressing (but not limited to) the following topics:

  • ROS signaling and antioxidant crosstalk: Spatiotemporal dynamics of enzymatic (SOD, CAT, APX, and GR) and non-enzymatic (glutathione, carotenoids, and ascorbate) antioxidants under various abiotic stresses.
  • Emerging regulatory networks: Epigenetic, post-translational, and hormonal regulation of antioxidant pathways.
  • Technological breakthroughs: Omics-driven discovery of novel antioxidant genes, CRISPR-based engineering of antioxidant capacity, etc.

Submissions may include original research articles, reviews, method developments, and perspectives. Interdisciplinary studies integrating biochemistry, genomics, and bioinformatics are particularly encouraged.

Dr. Rong Zhou
Guest Editor

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. Antioxidants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2900 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
  • antioxidant systems
  • reactive oxygen species
  • plant stress tolerance

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

19 pages, 8761 KB  
Article
Hydrogen-Rich Water Suppresses Dark- and ABA-Induced Postharvest Senescence in Non-Heading Chinese Cabbage (Brassica rapa ssp. chinensis)
by Yong Luo, Xinman Wang, Mengya Yin, Ranze Zhao, Dingyu Zhang and Hongfang Zhu
Antioxidants 2026, 15(5), 554; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox15050554 - 27 Apr 2026
Viewed by 337
Abstract
Non-heading Chinese cabbage (NHCC) is a highly economically valuable leafy vegetable widely grown in Asian regions. However, it undergoes rapid leaf yellowing and wilting during postharvest storage, which subsequently cause rapid quality decline and loss of nutritional components. Abscisic acid (ABA) promotes postharvest [...] Read more.
Non-heading Chinese cabbage (NHCC) is a highly economically valuable leafy vegetable widely grown in Asian regions. However, it undergoes rapid leaf yellowing and wilting during postharvest storage, which subsequently cause rapid quality decline and loss of nutritional components. Abscisic acid (ABA) promotes postharvest leaf senescence, while hydrogen-rich water (HRW) is widely used in postharvest preservation due to its excellent antioxidant properties; yet, the mechanism through which they interact to regulate postharvest senescence in NHCC remains unclear. Herein we found that exogenous HRW effectively delayed dark- and ABA-induced postharvest leaf senescence in NHCC, significantly maintained chlorophyll content, inhibited oxidative damage, and preserve nutritional components such as soluble sugars and vitamin C. The underlying mechanism was HRW inhibiting chlorophyll degradation by repressing the expression of chlorophyll catabolic genes like NYC1, NYE1, and PPH1. Meanwhile, HRW effectively lowered the accumulation of MDA and H2O2, elevated both the enzymatic activities and transcript abundance of SOD and CAT, and downregulated the transcript levels of RbohB, RbohC, RbohD, and RbohE, thereby maintaining reactive oxygen species (ROS) homeostasis. In addition, HRW negatively regulated ABA biosynthesis by inhibiting the transcript levels of ABA1, ABA2 and ABA3, while promoting the transcription of CYP707A1, CYP707A2 and CYP707A3. It also dampened the transcript abundance of ABA signaling components including PYL5, ABI1, and ABF3, thus blocking ABA signal transduction and alleviating its senescence-promoting effect. Collectively, this study confirms that HRW mitigates leaf senescence induced under dark and ABA conditions in NHCC via multiple synergistic pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations, and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

12 pages, 1707 KB  
Article
OsOFP3 Negatively Regulates Heat Stress Tolerance by Modulating H2O2 Homeostasis and Stomatal Aperture in Rice
by Guiyuan Yu, Yingfeng Wang, Guilian Zhang, Huabing Deng, Wenbang Tang, Lifeng Wang and Yunhua Xiao
Antioxidants 2026, 15(3), 314; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox15030314 - 2 Mar 2026
Viewed by 677
Abstract
Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple crop that is highly susceptible to heat stress (HS), which severely impairs growth and yield. In this study, we identified the rice Ovate Family Protein OsOFP3 as a novel negative regulator in response to heat. [...] Read more.
Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple crop that is highly susceptible to heat stress (HS), which severely impairs growth and yield. In this study, we identified the rice Ovate Family Protein OsOFP3 as a novel negative regulator in response to heat. Our results demonstrate that the expression of OsOFP3 is suppressed at both the transcriptional and protein levels under HS. Overexpression of OsOFP3 significantly reduces the survival rate of rice seedlings under HS and exacerbates chlorophyll degradation, membrane damage, and the accumulation of reactive oxygen species (H2O2 and O2−). In contrast, OsOFP3 mutants exhibit enhanced heat tolerance. Moreover, OsOFP3-overexpressing plants display increased stomatal opening and decreased stomatal closure under HS. Molecular interaction analysis further reveals that OsOFP3 interacts with the C-terminal domain of OsHTAS, a known positive regulator of heat tolerance encoding an E3 ubiquitin ligase, and this interaction depends on the RING domain of OsHTAS. Taken together, our findings indicate that OsOFP3 negatively regulates rice heat tolerance by disrupting ROS homeostasis, inhibiting stomatal closure, and potentially antagonizing the OsHTAS-mediated signaling pathway. This research provides new insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying HS tolerance in rice. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations, and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

18 pages, 4065 KB  
Article
Physiological Responses of Tomato Plants with Varied Susceptibility to Multiple Drought Stress
by Hong Chen, Yi Liu, Fei Ding, Yankai Li, Carl-Otto Ottosen, Xiaoming Song, Fangling Jiang, Zhen Wu, Xiaqing Yu and Rong Zhou
Antioxidants 2025, 14(12), 1448; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox14121448 - 1 Dec 2025
Viewed by 1238
Abstract
Frequent extreme weather events exacerbate agricultural abiotic stress, with drought causing widespread yield loss. Tomato, a globally important vegetable sensitive to water deficit, has been predominantly studied under single-drought scenarios that poorly reflect recurrent field conditions. This study investigated physiological and molecular responses [...] Read more.
Frequent extreme weather events exacerbate agricultural abiotic stress, with drought causing widespread yield loss. Tomato, a globally important vegetable sensitive to water deficit, has been predominantly studied under single-drought scenarios that poorly reflect recurrent field conditions. This study investigated physiological and molecular responses of two tomato genotypes to repeated drought stress. Results showed that the drought-sensitive genotype ‘TGTB’ exhibited faster ABA accumulation and more pronounced ABA-mediated stomatal closure. During the second drought cycle, stomatal pore length and width were significantly smaller than during the first drought, indicating a strong stress memory effect. In contrast, the drought-tolerant ‘LA1598’ showed minimal memory responses. Under extreme drought stress, primed and non-primed ‘TGTB’ plants showed significantly lower H2O2 content than controls, whereas primed ‘LA1598’ plants maintained a significantly lower O2·− production rate than non-primed plants during both extreme drought cycles. Antioxidant enzyme systems contributed to ROS homeostasis, supported by the regulation of key drought-responsive genes. This study demonstrates genotype-dependent memory capacity and reveals that drought priming enhances repeated drought tolerance through ABA-regulated stomatal adjustment. These findings provide a theoretical basis for improving tomato resilience to recurrent drought and supporting breeding of drought-tolerant varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations, and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

16 pages, 4417 KB  
Article
Sprouting Enhances Submergence Tolerance in Rice by Promoting Glutathione Biosynthesis and Turnover
by Mei Wang, Na Kuang, Ziyi Mao, Shangfeng Zhou, Zhixuan Liu, Ke Chen, Licheng Liu, Jingbo Xu, Lifeng Wang and Haoyu Lu
Antioxidants 2025, 14(12), 1387; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox14121387 - 21 Nov 2025
Viewed by 1068
Abstract
Submergence stress is a major constraint in direct-seeded rice production. This study investigated the effect and biochemical mechanism of sprouting, a traditional agronomic practice, on improving submergence tolerance in rice. Our findings demonstrate that sprouting is an effective seed treatment that significantly enhances [...] Read more.
Submergence stress is a major constraint in direct-seeded rice production. This study investigated the effect and biochemical mechanism of sprouting, a traditional agronomic practice, on improving submergence tolerance in rice. Our findings demonstrate that sprouting is an effective seed treatment that significantly enhances the plant’s ability to withstand flooding. Specifically, 48 h sprouting increased shoot height and root length by 163% and 423%, respectively, in the YLYJ48 variety under 6-day submergence. Sprouting upregulated the activity of glutathione reductase (GR) and the expression of its related genes, thereby significantly promoting the biosynthesis of glutathione (GSH). GSH content in seeds increased from 64.86 µg g−1 FW (0 h) to 83.00 µg g−1 FW (48 h) in HZ, and from 82.14 to 92.52 µg g−1 FW in YLYJ48. This process provides critical antioxidant protection for seedlings to implement a rapid “escape strategy,” ultimately enhancing their submergence tolerance. Functional verification showed that seed soaking with exogenous GSH (0.1%) effectively improved submergence tolerance by increasing antioxidant reserves. Exogenous GSH treatment elevated shoot height by approximately 50% in both HZ and YLYJ48 varieties under submergence. Field trials further demonstrated that exogenous GSH application significantly enhanced seedling establishment rates by 30–35% and improved seedling growth traits under submergence tolerance stress across multiple rice varieties. This study reveals part of the mechanism by which sprouting enhances submergence tolerance by influencing glutathione metabolism, offering practical strategies for flood-resilient direct-seeded rice cultivation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations, and Applications)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop