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Antioxidants
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Antioxidant Defense in Mitigating Abiotic Stresses in Plants: Mechanisms, Innovations,...
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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: 25 March 2026 | Viewed by 859

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Rong Zhou

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Food Science, Aarhus University, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark
2. Key Laboratory of Biology and Germplasm Enhancement of Horticultural Crops in East China, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Horticulture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stress; climate change; high throughput sequencing; photosynthesis; noncoding RNAs
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

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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 257
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)
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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 429
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)
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