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Effect of Biotic and Abiotic Factors on the Physiology of...
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Effect of Biotic and Abiotic Factors on the Physiology of Horticultural Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Physiology and Metabolism".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2025 | Viewed by 2432

Special Issue Editors

Dr. George Zervoudakis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, University of Patras, 30200 Messolonghi, Greece
Interests: abiotic and biotic stress effect on plants; plant oxidative stress
Dr. Filippos Bantis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, Greece
Interests: abiotic stress effect on plants; light effects on vegetable plant physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

According to estimations by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food production will need to increase by 70% to feed a global population that is expected to grow to 9 billion people by 2050. Consequently, horticultural plants are of strategic importance in raising agricultural food production and helping to meet worldwide demand. At the same time, horticulture has to cope with climate change and global warming, and consequently a constantly changing abiotic and biotic environment. Thus, the study of the physiological responses of horticultural plants to either biotic or abiotic environmental effects has come to be of great interest. Biotic effects include beneficial or harmful interactions between plants and microorganisms, plant defense against herbivores, pathogens, or other organisms such as nematodes, as well as allelopathy. Meanwhile, abiotic environmental effects include, but are not limited to, water deficit, salinity, light (visible and UV), temperature, minerals, and heavy metals. This Special Issue of Plants will cover a wide range of subject areas, aiming to contribute to the overall knowledge on the physiological responses and adaptability of horticultural plants against biotic and abiotic environment factors.

Dr. George Zervoudakis
Dr. Filippos Bantis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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. Plants 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 2700 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

  • mycorrhizal and rhizobacteria symbiosis
  • pathogens and herbivores
  • insects and nematodes
  • light and temperature stress acclimation
  • mineral nutrients assimilation
  • water deficit and salinity
  • vegetable crops

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 2297 KiB  
Article
Correlation Analysis of Twig and Leaf Characteristics and Leaf Thermal Dissipation of Hippophae rhamnoides in the Riparian Zone of the Taohe River in Gansu Province, China
by Qun Li, Min Ma, Yurui Tang, Tingting Zhao, Chengzhang Zhao and Bo Li
Plants 2025, 14(2), 282; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14020282 - 20 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 749
Abstract
Aims: The functional traits of twigs and leaves are closely related to the ability of plants to cope with heterogeneous environments. The analysis of the characteristics of twigs and leaves and leaf thermal dissipation in riparian plants is of great significance for [...] Read more.
Aims: The functional traits of twigs and leaves are closely related to the ability of plants to cope with heterogeneous environments. The analysis of the characteristics of twigs and leaves and leaf thermal dissipation in riparian plants is of great significance for exploring the light energy allocation and ecological adaptation strategies of plant leaves in heterogeneous habitats. However, there are few studies on the correlation between the twig–leaf characteristics of riparian plants and their heat dissipation in light heterogeneous environments. Methods: In this study, the riparian plant Hippophae rhamnoides in Taohe National Wetland Park was the research object. According to the differences in the canopy light environment of the H. rhamnoides population, three habitat gradients were set: I, the full sight zone; II, the moderate shade zone; and III, the canopy cover zone. We studied the relationship between the twig–leaf characteristics of H. rhamnoides and leaf thermal dissipation in a heterogeneous light environment. Important Findings: The results are as follows: from the full sight zone to the canopy cover zone, the population characteristics and the twig, leaf, and photosynthetic fluorescence physiological characteristics of H. rhamnoides demonstrated significant changes (p < 0.05). In the full sight zone, H. rhamnoides tended to have thick leaves with a smaller SLA on short and thick twigs, and the light energy absorbed by the leaves accounted for a higher proportion of thermal dissipation. In the moderate shade zone, H. rhamnoides tended to grow many thin leaves with high SLA on long and thick twigs, and the proportion of light energy absorbed by the leaves for heat dissipation was lower than that in the full sight zone. In the canopy cover zone, H. rhamnoides tended to grow a few large and thick leaves with a low SLA on slender and long twigs, and the proportion of light energy absorbed by the leaves for heat dissipation was the lowest. There was a significant correlation between the twig–leaf and leaf heat dissipation of H. rhamnoides in the three habitats (p < 0.05). The co-variation of plant branches and leaves and the timely adjustment of thermal dissipation in photoheterogeneous habitats reflect the phenotypic plasticity mechanism and self-protection strategy of riparian plants in adapting to heterogeneous environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effect of Biotic and Abiotic Factors on the Physiology of Horticultural Plants)
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17 pages, 3987 KiB  
Article
Exogenous Melatonin Reinforces Photosynthesis, Antioxidant Defense and Gene Expression to Ameliorate Na2CO3 Stress in Maize
by Guoxiang Qi, Xiaoqiang Zhao, Fuqiang He, Siqi Sun, Zhenzhen Shi and Yining Niu
Plants 2024, 13(20), 2844; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13202844 - 11 Oct 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1131
Abstract
Salt stress can seriously affect the growth and development of maize (Zea mays L.), resulting in a great yield loss. Melatonin (MT), an indole hormone, is a potential enhancer of plant tolerance against salt stress. However, the complex mechanisms of MT application [...] Read more.
Salt stress can seriously affect the growth and development of maize (Zea mays L.), resulting in a great yield loss. Melatonin (MT), an indole hormone, is a potential enhancer of plant tolerance against salt stress. However, the complex mechanisms of MT application in enhancing maize salt tolerance are still unclear. Herein, three-leaf seedlings of salt-susceptible P138 and its salt-resistant ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS)-104 mutant were cultured with or without 150 μM MT application under 0 and 100 mM Na2CO3 treatments for seven days, to systematically explore the response mechanisms of exogenous MT in improving the salt tolerance of maize. The results showed that salt stress triggered an escalation in reactive oxygen species production, enhanced multiple antioxidant enzymes’ activities, impaired cellular membrane permeability, inhibited photosynthetic pigment accumulation, and ultimately undermined the vigor and photosynthetic prowess of the seedlings. While suitable MT application counteracted the detrimental impacts of Na2CO3 on seedlings’ growth and photosynthetic capacity, the seedling length and net photosynthetic rate of P138 and EMS-104 were increased by 5.5% and 18.7%, and 12.7% and 54.5%, respectively. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) analysis further showed that MT application activated the expression levels of antioxidant enzyme-related genes (Zm00001d025106, Zm00001d031908, Zm00001d027511, and Zm00001d040364) and pigment biosynthesis-related genes (Zm00001d011819 and Zm00001d017766) in both maize seedlings under Na2CO3 stress; they then formed a complex interaction network of gene expression, multiple physiological metabolisms, and phenotype changes to influence the salt tolerance of maize seedlings under MT or Na2CO3 stress. To sum up, these observations underscore that 150 μM MT can alleviate salt injury of maize seedlings, which may provide new insights for further investigating MT regulation mechanisms to enhance maize seedlings’ salt resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Effect of Biotic and Abiotic Factors on the Physiology of Horticultural Plants)
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