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Plants
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Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses
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Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 August 2026 | Viewed by 1990

Editors

Dr. James A. Bunce

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Adaptive Cropping Systems Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Interests: photosynthesis; plant–water relations; climate change; elevated CO2; water stress; high-temperature stress; plant adaptation to environment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Zaid Khan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Natural Resources and Environment, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou, China
Interests: sustainable agriculture; crop production; plant nutrition; nutrient cycling; soil health; nitrogen use efficiency; plant physiology; abiotic stresses; nanotechnology; soil microbes; inorganic and organic fertilizers; organic agriculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Kangkang Zhang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Quality Safety and Standards of Agricultural Products Research, Jiangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanchang, China
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stresses; seed treatment; seed germination; soil amendment; sustainable agriculture; crop production; plant nutrition; soil health

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Plants in most environments live with periodic or chronic stress from the physical environment, and with global climate change, stresses also change, sometimes to the benefit of plants, sometimes to their detriment. This Special Issue aims to take a fresh look at plant responses and adaptations to physical stresses. Emphasis will be on new technologies to detect and ameliorate stresses both in the current climate and in the projected environment. This includes soil health management, agronomic approaches, and genetic manipulations of plants to improve stress tolerance.

Dr. James A. Bunce
Dr. Zaid Khan
Dr. Kangkang Zhang
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-anonymized 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

  • abiotic stress
  • atmosphere
  • soil
  • climate change
  • plant physiology
  • plant stress
  • plant adaptation

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

22 pages, 8037 KB  
Article
Acidic and Alkaline pH Stresses Impair Tomato Seed Germination and Seedling Growth via Disruption of Reactive Oxygen Species and Auxin Homeostasis
by Huabin Liu, Feiyan Li, Yueyue You, Ailing Chen, Mengjie Li, Jizhou Wang, Qiong Luo and Qinghai Gao
Plants 2026, 15(13), 2017; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15132017 - 29 Jun 2026
Viewed by 466
Abstract
Soil pH is a critical environmental determinant of seed germination, seedling establishment, and ultimately crop yield. However, the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying pH stress-mediated inhibition of germination and early seedling development remain poorly understood. Here, tomato was employed as a model system [...] Read more.
Soil pH is a critical environmental determinant of seed germination, seedling establishment, and ultimately crop yield. However, the physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying pH stress-mediated inhibition of germination and early seedling development remain poorly understood. Here, tomato was employed as a model system to systematically evaluate the dose-dependent effects of pH stress (ranging from pH 3.5 to 10.5) on germination performance and post-germinative growth. Our results demonstrate that both acidic and alkaline conditions significantly suppressed germination parameters in a pH intensity-dependent manner. Concurrently, seedling growth was markedly inhibited, root and hypocotyl elongation declined progressively, and total seedling biomass decreased substantially. Exposure to acidic (pH 3.5) or alkaline (pH 9.5) stress reduced seed viability and triggered a robust reactive oxygen species (ROS) burst and cell death. Biochemical assays revealed that acidic and alkaline stress disrupted redox homeostasis by compromising the coordinated activity of antioxidant enzymes, elevating membrane lipid peroxidation, and impairing osmotic adjustment capacity. Furthermore, acid and alkaline stress-induced inhibition of root growth coincided with diminished root cell viability and reduced endogenous auxin accumulation. Gene expression analyses showed that acidic and alkaline stress downregulated auxin biosynthesis genes and cell wall-associated genes involved in extension and modification, including EXPs and XTHs. Notably, IAA priming effectively rescued germination and early seedling growth under alkaline stress. Collectively, these findings elucidate a mechanistic framework linking pH-induced oxidative damage, auxin deficiency, and cell wall remodeling to impaired seed germination and seedling establishment and identify IAA priming as a physiologically grounded strategy to enhance crop resilience in alkali-affected marginal soils. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses)
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15 pages, 2477 KB  
Article
Unveiling the Physiological Basis of Cold Tolerance in Maize: Root Architecture, Photosynthetic Stability, and POD-Mediated Defense Under Delayed Chilling Stress
by Zhen Wang, Qi Jia, Baolin Zhang, Bo Ming, Lanfang Bai, Fugui Wang, Yongqiang Wang, Shengnan Yu, Runhou Zou and Zhigang Wang
Plants 2026, 15(3), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15030517 - 6 Feb 2026
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 999
Abstract
Delayed chilling stress is a frequent meteorological disaster in the spring maize-growing region of Northern China. Understanding the physiological responses and key characteristics of cold-tolerant maize varieties under such stress is crucial for their selection and utilization. This study compared the physiological and [...] Read more.
Delayed chilling stress is a frequent meteorological disaster in the spring maize-growing region of Northern China. Understanding the physiological responses and key characteristics of cold-tolerant maize varieties under such stress is crucial for their selection and utilization. This study compared the physiological and biochemical responses of a cold-tolerant variety (XY335) and a conventional variety (KH8) to simulated delayed chilling stress induced by early field sowing. Results showed that the emergence percentage and emergence uniformity of the cold-tolerant variety were 9.6% and 2.8% higher than those of the conventional variety, respectively. Under chilling stress, the root diameter of the cold-tolerant variety remained stable, while root length decreased by 24.5%. In contrast, the conventional variety exhibited the opposite response. Growth of the cold-tolerant variety slowed during stress but accelerated significantly after temperature recovery, achieving 1–2 more leaf ages than the conventional variety. The SPAD value (chlorophyll content) of the cold-tolerant variety was less affected, remaining 14.3% higher than the conventional variety, thereby maintaining higher photosynthetic efficiency. The enhanced stress tolerance of XY335 correlated with a robust antioxidant system: leaf peroxidase (POD) activity was 60.7% higher, and malondialdehyde (MDA) content was 42.4% lower compared to KH8. In summary, under delayed chilling stress, the cold-tolerant variety ensured higher emergence and seedling uniformity by reducing coleoptile length, maintained root diameter and absorption capacity by shortening root length, preserved chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthetic performance under the protection of a POD-dominated enzyme system, and employed a “standby mode” with compensatory leaf growth to ensure adequate dry matter accumulation and yield formation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Responses to Abiotic Stresses)
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