Decoding Plant Stress Responses: An Integration of Physiology and Biochemistry

Dear Colleagues,

Extreme weather events have become increasingly frequent, underscoring the critical need to deepen our understanding of plant adaptation and resilience to environmental fluctuations regarding climate change. Significant advancements have been made in understanding the regulatory networks at the molecular level, particularly in model organisms such as Arabidopsis thaliana. However, sudden and severe environmental stresses continue to present significant challenges. For instance, a late spring cold snap in 2024, characterized by a sudden temperature drop, adversely affected major grain crops, particularly winter wheat in the primary production regions of North China and the Huang-Huai-Hai area. There have been various reports on these events, which require further validation.

This Special Issue aims to advance our knowledge of plant stress responses and adaptive mechanisms by integrating physiological and biochemical approaches. Biochemicals such as soluble sugars, proline, flavonoids, and terpenoids play a positive role in modulating stress responses through various physiological processes. For instance, soluble sugars contribute to cold stress tolerance by modulating cellular osmotic pressure, while proline contributes by mitigating drought stress. Although flavonoids and terpenoids are broadly recognized for conferring resistance to both biotic and abiotic stresses, the specific metabolites involved and their underlying biochemical mechanisms require further investigation. A comprehensive understanding of stress-induced physiological and biochemical changes is essential, as they can provide valuable insights to inform modern breeding programs and drive other scientific advancements.

Manuscript Submission Information:

We invite researchers to contribute to this research topic and welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that address the co-regulation of biotic and abiotic stressess in plants with a particular focus on the following topics:

• Molecular mechanisms underlying biotic and abiotic stress response.
  
  • Interactions between transcription factors and other regulatory proteins, as well as downstream structural genes.
  • Impact of light, temperature, drought, salinity, pH, disease, and other environmental factors.
• Use of omics technologies to unravel regulatory networks underlying specific stress conditions.
  
  • Role of physiology and biochemistry in plant stress responses.
  • Mechanism of metabolome change patterns in response to environmental stress. Plant bioactive components that are responsive to stress.
  • Advanced omics technologies, such as single-cell sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and spatial metabolomics that are employed in studying plant stress responses.
• The dynamic interplay of plants, microbes, and their environment.
• Genetic manipulation of biotic and abiotic stress resistance for agricultural or industrial applications.

Dr. Yanqiang Gao
Prof. Dr. Lixin Li
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.

• stress response
• omics
• physiology and biochemistry
• stress-related metabolites
• microbial interactome