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Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress
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Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water 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: 30 July 2025 | Viewed by 3440

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biodiversity, Institute of Biosciences, São Paulo State University-UNESP, Av. 24A, 1515, Rio Claro 13506-900, São Paulo, Brazil
Interests: abiotic stresses; salinity; physiological and biochemical changes in plants; salt stress tolerance; reactive oxygen species (ROS); ion homeostasis; ion toxicity; agricultural challenges in arid and semi-arid regions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Toshik Iarley da Silva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Center for Agricultural, Environmental, and Biological Sciences, Federal University of Recôncavo of Bahia – UFRB, Campus Universitário, Cruz das Almas 44380-000, Brazil
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stresses; salt and draught stress tolerance; phytohormones; antioxidant system enzymes; reactive oxygen species; biostimulants; horticulture; vegetables; edible flowers

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stress, more specifically saline and water stress, poses a significant threat to plants’ survival and productivity, causing substantial losses in global crop yields. The adverse effects caused by water stress (drought and flood) and saline stress are maximized with environmental conditions. Consequently, there is a pressing need for comprehensive research delving into the molecular, cellular, tissue, anatomical, morphological, and physiological mechanisms underlying plants’ resilience to salt and water stress. This Special Issue of Plants (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/plants) aims to collate insights into plant responses to salt and water stress and propose innovative strategies for enhancing their resilience. By synthesizing a wealth of information, we aspire to advance our understanding of plants’ adaptation mechanisms and foster the development of effective solutions to mitigate the impact of salt and water stress. We invite research articles that address the following topics: ROS; salinity; drought; flood stress; signaling molecules; antioxidants; and oxidative stress. Finally, we are particularly interested in understanding how these combined stresses impact plants’ responses and adaptations, rather than studying individual stress factors in isolation.

Dr. Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim
Dr. Toshik Iarley da Silva
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

  • antioxidant defense
  • lipid peroxidation
  • oxidative stress
  • phytohormones
  • stress signaling
  • physiological and biochemical changes in plants
  • salt stress tolerance
  • reactive oxygen species (ROS)
  • drought stress responses
  • ion toxicity
  • redox and ROS balance
  • enzymes

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 3411 KiB  
Article
Effects of Potassium Fulvic Acid on Soil Physical and Chemical Properties and Soil Microenvironment of Blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) Under Salt Stress
by Xuanrong Wu, Dekang Hou, Jing Ma, Yanan Li, Lin Wu, Haiguang Liu, Yi Zuo, Xinxin Guo, Jinying Li and Ying Wang
Plants 2025, 14(11), 1654; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14111654 - 29 May 2025
Viewed by 174
Abstract
These days, one of the main issues preventing agricultural development is salinized soils. Potassium fulvic acid (PFA) not only regulates plant growth, but also improves the soil nutrient content and physical structure, which makes it a soil conditioner worth promoting. Nevertheless, the research [...] Read more.
These days, one of the main issues preventing agricultural development is salinized soils. Potassium fulvic acid (PFA) not only regulates plant growth, but also improves the soil nutrient content and physical structure, which makes it a soil conditioner worth promoting. Nevertheless, the research conducted thus far on the subject of PFA with regard to plant growth and inter-root microbial communities remains somewhat limited in scope. In this study, a pot experiment was conducted to simulate both the normal environment and salt stress environment. The objective of this experiment was to verify the effect of PFA on the growth of blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum L.) as well as its effect on the soil physical and chemical indices and the soil microbial community structure. The findings demonstrated that the implementation of potassium fulvic acids exhibited a minimal impact on the growth of blueberry plants under standard environmental conditions. However, it was observed to exert a substantial effect on enhancing various physiological parameters, including plant height, root activity, and chlorophyll synthesis, particularly in response to salt stress. PFA led to a substantial augmentation in the soil organic matter content, alongside a notable rise in the alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen (AN) and available potassium (AK) content. Concurrently, PFA caused a notable escalation in the activities of soil urease, sucrase, acid phosphatase, and catalase (p < 0.05) in the salt-stressed environment. PFA increased the abundance of Acidobacteria, Myxococcota, Ascomycota, and Fungi_phy_Incertae_sedis under salt stress, which was mainly related to the decrease in electrical conductivity (EC) values and increase in soil acid phosphatase (S-ACP) activity. It is evident that the implementation of PFA is advantageous in enhancing the saline environment, mitigating the impact of salt damage on blueberries and establishing a foundation for the expansion of cultivated areas and the sustainable cultivation of blueberries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress)
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21 pages, 3073 KiB  
Article
The Combination of Salicylic Acid, Nicotinamide, and Proline Mitigates the Damage Caused by Salt Stress in Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
by Thainan Sipriano dos Santos, Marcos Roberto Santos Correia, Luma Santos Sena, Laura Pereira dos Santos Santana, Geovanna Buique Gualberto da Silva, Keilane Silva Lima, Elienay Vinícius da Silva Dutra, Myriam El Adas, Maria Carolina Borges de Oliveira Ribeiro, João Everthon da Silva Ribeiro, Rogério Ferreira Ribas, Elania Freire da Silva, Alfredo Emilio Rubio-Casal, Aurélio Paes Barros Júnior, Xuguang Tang, Thieres George Freire da Silva, Alexandre Maniçoba da Rosa Ferraz Jardim and Toshik Iarley da Silva
Plants 2025, 14(8), 1156; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14081156 - 8 Apr 2025
Viewed by 525
Abstract
Salinity represents a significant challenge for agriculture, especially in semi-arid regions, affecting the growth and productivity of plants such as nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), which is valued for its ornamental, medicinal, and food uses. Salt stress disrupts biochemical, physiological, and anatomical processes, [...] Read more.
Salinity represents a significant challenge for agriculture, especially in semi-arid regions, affecting the growth and productivity of plants such as nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus), which is valued for its ornamental, medicinal, and food uses. Salt stress disrupts biochemical, physiological, and anatomical processes, limiting plant development. This study investigated the application of attenuators, including salicylic acid, nicotinamide, and proline, to mitigate the effects of salt stress on nasturtium cultivated in a hydroponic system. The treatments involved different combinations of these compounds under saline conditions (40 mM NaCl). The attenuators reduced the negative impacts of salt stress, promoting improvements in gas exchange, such as increased net photosynthesis, water-use efficiency, and stomatal conductance. Additionally, the treatments enhanced vegetative and reproductive growth, increasing the dry biomass of leaves, stems, and flowers, as well as the number of flowers and flower buds. The combination of salicylic acid, nicotinamide, and proline stood out by providing greater efficiency in carbon assimilation, stability of photosynthetic pigments, and higher tolerance to salt stress. These findings reinforce the potential of using attenuators to optimize the cultivation of nasturtium in saline environments, promoting higher productivity and plant quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress)
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22 pages, 3649 KiB  
Article
Influence of Summer Drought on Post-Drought Resprouting and Leaf Senescence in Prunus spinosa L. Growing in a Common Garden
by Kristine Vander Mijnsbrugge, Stefaan Moreels, Sharon Moreels, Damien Buisset, Karen Vancampenhout and Eduardo Notivol Paino
Plants 2025, 14(7), 1132; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14071132 - 5 Apr 2025
Viewed by 461
Abstract
Understanding how woody plants cope with severe water shortages is critical, especially for regions where droughts are becoming more frequent and intense. We studied the effects of drought intensity, focusing on post-drought resprouting, autumn leaf senescence and the subsequent spring bud burst. Furthermore, [...] Read more.
Understanding how woody plants cope with severe water shortages is critical, especially for regions where droughts are becoming more frequent and intense. We studied the effects of drought intensity, focusing on post-drought resprouting, autumn leaf senescence and the subsequent spring bud burst. Furthermore, we aimed to study population differentiation in the drought and post-drought responses. We performed a summer dry-out experiment in a common garden of potted Prunus spinosa L. (Rosaceae) saplings. We analysed responses across different visual stress symptom categories and examined differentiation between provenances from a local origin (Western Europe, Belgium), a lower latitude (Spain) and a higher latitude (Sweden). The chance of post-drought resprouting was greater for the more severely affected plants than for the less severely affected ones, and it occurred earlier. The plants that displayed wilting of the leaves during the drought had a leaf senescence 2.7 days earlier than the controls, whereas that of plants with 25 to 75% and more than 75% of desiccated leaves was 7 and 15 days later, respectively. During the drought, the local provenance was the first to develop visual symptoms compared to the other two provenances. However, among plants that exhibited no or only mild symptoms, this provenance also had a higher likelihood of post-drought resprouting. Among the control plants, the higher-latitude provenance displayed leaf senescence earlier, while the lower-latitude provenance senesced later compared to the local provenance. However, these differences in the timing of leaf senescence among the three provenances disappeared in treated plants with more than 25% of desiccated leaves due to the drought. Whereas leaf senescence could be earlier or later depending on the developed drought symptoms, the timing of bud burst was only delayed. Results indicate that resprouting and timing of leaf senescence are responsive to the severity of the experienced drought in a provenance-dependent way. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress)
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32 pages, 8768 KiB  
Article
Soil Salinization and Ancient Hulled Wheat: A Study on Antioxidant Defense Mechanisms
by Ridvan Temizgul
Plants 2025, 14(5), 678; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14050678 - 22 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 508
Abstract
Soil salinization, which is second only to soil erosion in terms of soil degradation, significantly hinders crop growth and development, leading to reduced yields. This study investigated the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense mechanisms of four ancient hulled wheat species under salt stress, [...] Read more.
Soil salinization, which is second only to soil erosion in terms of soil degradation, significantly hinders crop growth and development, leading to reduced yields. This study investigated the enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant defense mechanisms of four ancient hulled wheat species under salt stress, with and without exogenous glycine betaine (0.5 mM). We aimed to assess the salt tolerance of these species and their potential for cultivation in saline/sodic soils. Our findings indicate that sodium and potassium chloride concentrations exceeding 100 mM induce significant stress in hulled wheat. However, combined salt stress (sodium and potassium chloride) reduced this stress by approximately 20–30%. Furthermore, exogenous glycine betaine supplementation almost completely alleviated the negative effects of salt stress, particularly in Triticum boeoticum. This species exhibited a remarkable ability to restore normal growth functions under these conditions. Our results suggest that ancient hulled wheat, especially T. boeoticum, may be a promising candidate for cultivation in sodium-saline soils. By supplementing with potassium fertilizers in addition to nitrogen, plants can effectively control salt influx into their cells and maintain intracellular K+/Na+ balance, thereby mitigating the adverse effects of salinity stress. This approach has the potential to increase crop yields and enhance food security in saline environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress)
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17 pages, 6751 KiB  
Article
Endogenous γ-Aminobutyric Acid Accumulation Enhances Salinity Tolerance in Rice
by Mingjia Chen, Changhua Zhu, Hui Zhang, Siheng Chen, Xi Wang and Lijun Gan
Plants 2024, 13(19), 2750; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants13192750 - 30 Sep 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1200
Abstract
Rice is an important food crop worldwide but is usually susceptible to saline stress. When grown on soil with excessive salt, rice plants experience osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stresses that adversely affect growth performance. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a nonproteinogenic amino acid that [...] Read more.
Rice is an important food crop worldwide but is usually susceptible to saline stress. When grown on soil with excessive salt, rice plants experience osmotic, ionic, and oxidative stresses that adversely affect growth performance. γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a nonproteinogenic amino acid that plays an important role in the metabolic activities of organisms. Glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) is the rate-limiting enzyme in GABA metabolism. Here, we genetically modified rice GAD by overexpression or CRISPR-mediated genome editing. These lines, named gad3-ox1 and gad3-ox2 or gad1/3-ko, were used to explore the effects of endogenous GABA accumulation on salt tolerance in rice. Both the gad3-ox1 and gad3-ox2 lines exhibited significant accumulation of the GABA content, whereas the gad1/3-ko line presented a reduced GABA content in vivo. Notably, the two overexpression lines were markedly resistant to salt stress compared with the wild-type and knockout lines. Furthermore, our results demonstrated that endogenous GABA accumulation in the gad3-ox1 and gad3-ox2 lines increased the contents of antioxidant substances and osmotic regulators, decreased the content of membrane lipid peroxidation products and the Na+ content, and resulted in strong tolerance to salt stress. Together, these data provide a theoretical basis for cultivating rice varieties with strong salt tolerance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Challenges in Response to Salt and Water Stress)
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