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Plants
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Multifaceted Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress Factors
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Multifaceted Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress Factors

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: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 695

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Edyta Zdunek-Zastocka

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences—SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: adaptation to stress; drought, salinity and heavy metal stresses; metabolism of abscisic acid, ureides, and amino acids

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Changing environmental conditions, caused mainly by intensive human activity, pose new challenges for plants. Plants often have to cope with adverse environmental factors such as water shortage, salinity, extreme temperatures, heavy metals, or flooding. These abiotic stress factors not only negatively affect plant growth and development, thereby reducing crop quantity and quality, but also impair plant reproduction, limiting their diversity. It is, therefore, in the interest of humans to thoroughly understand the mechanism of action of a given stress factor, as well as the mechanism of compensatory responses in plants. Although many of these mechanisms have already been discovered, numerous aspects are still not fully understood.

This Special Issue aims to bring together the latest advances in understanding the mechanisms of abiotic stress factors and the consequent defense responses of plants. Original research and review articles arising from a wide range of approaches—from whole-plant morphological and physiological studies to molecular approaches—addressing stress perception mechanisms, stress-triggered signaling pathways, and downstream transcriptomic and metabolomic responses are welcome.

Dr. Edyta Zdunek-Zastocka
Guest Editor

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-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

  • cold
  • drought
  • gene expression
  • heat
  • heavy metals
  • oxidative stress
  • salinity
  • stress defense
  • stress perception and signaling

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 4378 KB  
Article
Integrative Evaluation of Salt Tolerance in Cherry Rootstocks Using Phenotypic and Biochemical Markers
by Juan Zhang, Guanhua Lan, Feng An, Zhenfei Xing, Chenxue Lin and Yuliang Cai
Plants 2026, 15(5), 737; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants15050737 - 28 Feb 2026
Viewed by 450
Abstract
The sweet cherry has become a commercially significant fruit crop, yet its cultivation in Xinjiang is severely constrained by saline-alkali soils. To address this, selecting salt-tolerant rootstocks is vital for sustainable crop production in salinized soils. This study investigated the physiological and biochemical [...] Read more.
The sweet cherry has become a commercially significant fruit crop, yet its cultivation in Xinjiang is severely constrained by saline-alkali soils. To address this, selecting salt-tolerant rootstocks is vital for sustainable crop production in salinized soils. This study investigated the physiological and biochemical responses of five major rootstock cultivars (‘Mahaleb CDR-1’, ‘Gisela 6’, ‘Colt’, ‘Daqingye’, and ‘Krymsk5’) to a gradient of NaCl stress (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300 mmol·L−1) under controlled environmental conditions. Key osmoprotectants and antioxidant systems showed a consistent trend across genotypes: the contents of soluble sugars, proteins, and proline, along with the activities of catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), and peroxidase (POD), initially increased under moderate stress but subsequently declined as salinity stress intensified. Specifically, CAT activity peaked at 150 mmol·L−1 NaCl in most genotypes, with significant increases ranging from 33.9% (‘Gisela 6’ at 100 mmol·L−1) to 45.52% (‘Colt’ at 150 mmol·L−1) compared to controls. SOD activity also reached maxima at 150 mmol·L−1 in most cultivars, increasing by 11.30% to 19.38% relative to controls, while POD activity exhibited peak values at 150–200 mmol·L−1, with increases of 4.12% to 10.45%. Notably, proline (PRO) accumulation peaked at 150 mmol·L−1 NaCl, with ‘Mahaleb CDR-1’ demonstrating the highest concentration (29.81 μg·g−1) and ‘Colt’ the lowest (25.85 μg·g−1). Conversely, the malondialdehyde (MDA) content, an indicator of membrane lipid peroxidation, increased progressively with increasing salinity. The cultivar ‘Colt’ exhibited the most severe membrane damage. Its MDA content under 300 mmol·L−1 NaCl stress was 80.84% higher than that under the control condition (0 mmol·L−1 NaCl). These results demonstrate that under moderate salt stress, the rootstocks activated adaptive responses, as evidenced by elevated osmoprotectant levels and enzymatic activity, which were ultimately suppressed under severe conditions. A comprehensive analysis of all physiological and biochemical indices allowed for a clear ranking of salt tolerance: ‘Mahaleb CDR-1’ > ‘Daqingye’ > ‘Krymsk5’ > ‘Gisela 6’ > ‘Colt’. This study provides a robust physiological basis for selecting salt-tolerant rootstocks in saline-alkaline regions and offers valuable insights for breeding programs aimed at enhancing stress resilience. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multifaceted Response of Plants to Abiotic Stress Factors)
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