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Antarctic Plants Responses to Abiotic Stress
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Antarctic Plants Responses to Abiotic Stress

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: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 5706

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. León A. Bravo

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Guest Editor
Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular Vegetal, Instituto de Agroindustria, Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Recursos Naturales, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Forestales & Center of Plant, Soil Interaction and Natural Resources Biotechnology, Scientific and Technological Bioresource Nucleus, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco 1145, Chile
Interests: Antarctic plant science; climate change; abiotic stress physiology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Patricia Sáez

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Laboratorio Cultivo de Tejidos Vegetales, Centro de Biotecnología, Departamento de Silvicultura, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile e Instituto de Ecología y Biodiversidad (IEB), Santiago, Chile
Interests: Antarctic plant science; plant physiology; abiotic stress
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Antarctic flora is naturally composed by only two vascular plant species. Additionally, several mosses species and terrestrial photobionts, particularly lichens, are abundant. All these organisms’ physiology is unique because it has been sculped by the environmental constraints found in Maritime Antarctica, such as permanent low temperature even during summer, extreme cold and desiccant winds, salinity, long snow coverage and short photoperiod during winters. Currently, the Antarctic Peninsula, precisely where the greatest diversity of plants in Antarctica resides, has been identified as one of the areas most affected by regional warming, thus increasing the interest to study these singular species and their responses against abiotic stress. Therefore, the aim of this Special Issue is to consolidate a set of articles which examine the physiological mechanisms behind the uniqueness of the Antarctic plants species, in terms of adaptations to Antarctic environments, and how these mechanisms could help or preclude their responses to regional warming of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Prof. Dr. León A. Bravo
Dr. Patricia Sáez
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • Antarctic plants
  • abiotic stress tolerance mechanisms
  • regional warming in Antarctica

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

13 pages, 1510 KiB  
Article
How Does Diurnal and Nocturnal Warming Affect the Freezing Resistance of Antarctic Vascular Plants?
by Dariel López, Carolina Sanhueza, Haroldo Salvo-Garrido, Luisa Bascunan-Godoy and León A. Bravo
Plants 2023, 12(4), 806; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12040806 - 10 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1222
Abstract
The Antarctic Peninsula has rapidly warmed up in past decades, and global warming has exhibited an asymmetric trend; therefore, it is interesting to understand whether nocturnal or diurnal warming is the most relevant for plant cold deacclimation. This study aimed to evaluate the [...] Read more.
The Antarctic Peninsula has rapidly warmed up in past decades, and global warming has exhibited an asymmetric trend; therefore, it is interesting to understand whether nocturnal or diurnal warming is the most relevant for plant cold deacclimation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of diurnal and nocturnal warming on Antarctic vascular plant’s freezing resistance under laboratory conditions. This was studied by measuring the lethal temperature for 50% of tissue (LT50), ice nucleation temperature (INT), and freezing point (FP) on Deschampsia antarctica and Colobanthus quitensis plants. Additionally, soluble carbohydrates content and dehydrin levels were analyzed during nocturnal and diurnal temperatures increase. Nocturnal warming led to a 7 °C increase in the LT50 of D. antarctica and reduced dehydrin-like peptide expression. Meanwhile, C. quitensis warmed plants reduce their LT50 to about 3.6 °C. Both species reduce their sucrose content by more than 28% in warming treatments. Therefore, nocturnal warming leads to cold deacclimation in both plant species, while C. quitensis plants are also cold-deacclimated upon warm days. This suggests that even when the remaining freezing resistance of both species allows them to tolerate summer freezing events, C. quitensis can reach its boundaries of freezing vulnerability in the near future if warming in the Antarctic Peninsula progress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antarctic Plants Responses to Abiotic Stress)
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24 pages, 3052 KiB  
Article
Environmental Signals Act as a Driving Force for Metabolic and Defense Responses in the Antarctic Plant Colobanthus quitensis
by Laura Bertini, Silvia Proietti, Benedetta Fongaro, Aleš Holfeld, Paola Picotti, Gaia Salvatore Falconieri, Elisabetta Bizzarri, Gloria Capaldi, Patrizia Polverino de Laureto and Carla Caruso
Plants 2022, 11(22), 3176; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11223176 - 21 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1943
Abstract
During evolution, plants have faced countless stresses of both biotic and abiotic nature developing very effective mechanisms able to perceive and counteract adverse signals. The biggest challenge is the ability to fine-tune the trade-off between plant growth and stress resistance. The Antarctic plant [...] Read more.
During evolution, plants have faced countless stresses of both biotic and abiotic nature developing very effective mechanisms able to perceive and counteract adverse signals. The biggest challenge is the ability to fine-tune the trade-off between plant growth and stress resistance. The Antarctic plant Colobanthus quitensis has managed to survive the adverse environmental conditions of the white continent and can be considered a wonderful example of adaptation to prohibitive conditions for millions of other plant species. Due to the progressive environmental change that the Antarctic Peninsula has undergone over time, a more comprehensive overview of the metabolic features of C. quitensis becomes particularly interesting to assess its ability to respond to environmental stresses. To this end, a differential proteomic approach was used to study the response of C. quitensis to different environmental cues. Many differentially expressed proteins were identified highlighting the rewiring of metabolic pathways as well as defense responses. Finally, a different modulation of oxidative stress response between different environmental sites was observed. The data collected in this paper add knowledge on the impact of environmental stimuli on plant metabolism and stress response by providing useful information on the trade-off between plant growth and defense mechanisms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antarctic Plants Responses to Abiotic Stress)
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21 pages, 2924 KiB  
Article
Respiratory and Photosynthetic Responses of Antarctic Vascular Plants Are Differentially Affected by CO2 Enrichment and Nocturnal Warming
by Carolina Sanhueza, Daniela Cortes, Danielle A. Way, Francisca Fuentes, Luisa Bascunan-Godoy, Nestor Fernandez Del-Saz, Patricia L. Sáez, León A. Bravo and Lohengrin A. Cavieres
Plants 2022, 11(11), 1520; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11111520 - 06 Jun 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1969
Abstract
Projected rises in atmospheric CO2 concentration and minimum night-time temperatures may have important effects on plant carbon metabolism altering the carbon balance of the only two vascular plant species in the Antarctic Peninsula. We assessed the effect of nocturnal warming (8/5 °C [...] Read more.
Projected rises in atmospheric CO2 concentration and minimum night-time temperatures may have important effects on plant carbon metabolism altering the carbon balance of the only two vascular plant species in the Antarctic Peninsula. We assessed the effect of nocturnal warming (8/5 °C vs. 8/8 °C day/night) and CO2 concentrations (400 ppm and 750 ppm) on gas exchange, non-structural carbohydrates, two respiratory-related enzymes, and mitochondrial size and number in two species of vascular plants. In Colobanthus quitensis, light-saturated photosynthesis measured at 400 ppm was reduced when plants were grown in the elevated CO2 or in the nocturnal warming treatments. Growth in elevated CO2 reduced stomatal conductance but nocturnal warming did not. The short-term sensitivity of respiration, relative protein abundance, and mitochondrial traits were not responsive to either treatment in this species. Moreover, some acclimation to nocturnal warming at ambient CO2 was observed. Altogether, these responses in C. quitensis led to an increase in the respiration-assimilation ratio in plants grown in elevated CO2. The response of Deschampsia antarctica to the experimental treatments was quite distinct. Photosynthesis was not affected by either treatment; however, respiration acclimated to temperature in the elevated CO2 treatment. The observed short-term changes in thermal sensitivity indicate type I acclimation of respiration. Growth in elevated CO2 and nocturnal warming resulted in a reduction in mitochondrial numbers and an increase in mitochondrial size in D. antarctica. Overall, our results suggest that with climate change D. antarctica could be more successful than C. quitensis, due to its ability to make metabolic adjustments to maintain its carbon balance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Antarctic Plants Responses to Abiotic Stress)
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