Plant Responses to Environmental Stresses: Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms

Dear Colleagues,

Plants face numerous environmental stresses, both abiotic (e.g., drought, salinity, temperature extremes, heavy metals, pollutants, UV radiation) and biotic (e.g., pathogens, herbivores), which strongly affect their growth, development, and productivity. These challenges threaten agricultural yields, food security, and ecosystem stability. To survive, plants have evolved complex physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms involving stress perception, signaling pathways, gene expression reprogramming, osmoprotectant accumulation, secondary metabolite synthesis, and antioxidant defenses. Understanding these adaptive mechanisms is essential for developing stress-tolerant crops and improving strategies for biomonitoring and phytoremediation. In the context of accelerating climate change, unraveling how plants sense and respond to multiple stressors has become an urgent research priority with significant ecological and socio-economic implications.

This Special Issue of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS) aims to collect high-quality original research articles and reviews that provide new insights into the molecular and physiological bases of plant responses to environmental stresses. Consistent with IJMS’s mission to advance molecular biology through interdisciplinary research, the contributions will enhance understanding of stress perception, signaling, and adaptation processes. This Special Issue welcomes original articles, short communications, and reviews addressing topics such as plant physiological and biochemical responses to abiotic stress; signaling pathways involving hormones and transcription factors; reactive oxygen species and antioxidant systems; metabolic and secondary metabolite adjustments; omics-based stress studies; plant–microbe interactions; non-model plant ecophysiology; and applications in phytoremediation, biomonitoring, and crop improvement.

Dr. Viviana Maresca
Dr. Alessia Postiglione
Guest Editors

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