Search Results (986)

Warming is making drought and heat co-occur more often, intensifying compound stress on cropland in northern China’s drylands, where water scarcity makes further irrigation expansion untenable. On the Guanzhong Plain, a major grain-producing region, it remains unclear which irrigation conditions buffer cropland carbon–water productivity—the carbon assimilated per unit of water consumed—against such events. Using growing-season (March–October) remote sensing for 2016–2024, we identified the 2022 compound drought–heat event pixel by pixel and classified cropland as stable rainfed, transitional/mixed, or stable high-coverage irrigation from the pre-event (2016–2020) irrigated-area fraction and its persistence. In 2022, 88.9% of cropland experienced at least one compound dry–hot day, with dry–hot overlap 2.4 times the independence expectation. After balancing climate, terrain, soil, spatial position, and subpixel cropland fraction, stable high-coverage irrigation held no advantage in event-year resistance, post-event recovery, or overall resilience. Carbon assimilation remained above its pre-event level while carbon–water productivity fell, so the event cost water-use efficiency rather than carbon. Event-period root-zone soil-moisture change ranked first, and irrigated-area fraction last, among twelve random-forest predictors of resistance. We flagged 6722.3 km² of cropland for water-use audits and 2418.1 km² for supplemental irrigation; limited water should be allocated by realized moisture status, exposure, and resilience, not by irrigability. Full article

Members of the EPIDERMAL PATTERNING FACTOR (EPF) and EPF-Like (EPFL) families perform diverse regulatory functions in plant tissue morphogenesis, controlling the development of stomata, awns, shoot apical meristems (SAMs), and inflorescences. Nevertheless, the biological functions of OsEPF/EPFL family members in mediating responses to biotic/abiotic stresses are not yet widely characterized. Here, we demonstrated abundant cis-acting elements in the putative promoters of OsEPF/EPFL genes, including those associated with dehydration-, MeJA-, MYB binding site for drought, stress-, and ABA-responsive element. We performed a systematic analysis of the expression patterns of all OsEPF/EPFL family members under heat, cold, drought, and salt stress treatments. Among these genes, OsEPFL9 and OsEPFL10 exhibited rapid and sustained up-regulation across all four stress conditions. Furthermore, the majority of OsEPF/EPFL members were up-regulated specifically in response to salt stress. In terms of biotic stress responses, OsEPF2/5/7/10 were rapidly induced as early as 12 h post-infection (hpi) with the rice blast pathogen (Magnaporthe oryzae). Functional validation further revealed that its deficiency causes increased sensitivity to both M. oryzae and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo). Collectively, our research will provide significant insights into the multifunctional roles of the OsEPF/EPFL gene family, particularly in stress responses. This work also establishes a theoretical basis and scientific reference for the application of plant small secreted peptides (SSPs) in crop disease resistance breeding and stress tolerance improvement. Full article

Rice is a staple grain crop central to China’s food security. As the core production region of single-cropping rice, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River face escalating high daytime and nighttime temperatures and compound drought–heat stress amid global warming. The accurate assessment of heat hazards is therefore pivotal for regional yield stability and disaster mitigation. Based on meteorological, remote-sensing, and soil data, together with county-level rice yield statistics from 150 major producing counties spanning 1991 to 2024 (5009 county-year calibration units), we first constructed a composite heat damage index (CHI) by integrating daytime harmful accumulated temperature (Ha), nighttime harmful accumulated temperature (HNa), and the Vegetation Health Index (VHI). We then implemented a gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) machine learning framework in which yield loss was imposed as a physical constraint. This framework was benchmarked against convolutional neural network (CNN), random forest (RF), and support vector machine (SVM) models, with the Shapley additive explanations (SHAP) method used for attribution analysis and an independent temporal partitioning strategy applied for model validation. The results indicate the following: (1) compared to the single daytime heat damage index, the CHI elevated the yield correlation coefficient from 0.52 to 0.63; (2) with yield constraint calibration, the model attained a balanced accuracy of 92.6% and 94.0% consistency with historical disaster records; (3) regional heat hazard presents a spatial pattern of “high in inland areas and low in coastal areas,” with the heading–flowering stage as the critical sensitive period; and (4) high nighttime temperature accounts for approximately 20% of the model’s relative importance, with higher discriminative sensitivity for high-grade hazards, while the amplifying effect of water deficit on heat stress maintains a stable relative importance of around 16%. In this study, the coupled optimization of traditional assessment paradigms and data-driven approaches is achieved, providing a methodological reference for refined growth stage–specific heat hazard assessment. Its cross-regional portability and independent predictive validity require further validation. Full article

Drought and heat stresses are among the most important environmental constraints limiting maize (Zea mays L.) productivity worldwide. Over the past two decades, advances in mass spectrometry-based proteomics have generated extensive datasets describing proteins with altered abundance in maize tissues exposed to water deficit and elevated temperatures. These studies have identified numerous stress-responsive proteins involved in photosynthesis, energy metabolism, antioxidant defense, proteostasis, signaling pathways, and cellular homeostasis. In parallel, phosphoproteomic investigations have revealed extensive remodeling of phosphorylation networks that regulate stress perception, signal transduction, and adaptive responses. However, most available studies remain focused on protein-level observations and provide limited insight into the molecular diversity underlying stress adaptation. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the proteomic and phosphoproteomic responding of maize to drought and heat stresses through the emerging perspective of proteoform biology. We discuss how phosphorylation, oxidative modifications, proteolytic processing, alternative splicing, and genetic variation contribute to proteoform generation and expand the functional complexity of the maize stress proteome. Particular emphasis is placed on the integration of quantitative proteomics, phosphoproteomics, and proteogenomics as complementary approaches for characterizing stress-responsive molecular networks. We further evaluate current methodological limitations, including the predominance of bottom-up workflows, the underrepresentation of combined-stress studies and reproductive tissues, and the limited application of proteoform-resolved analytical strategies. We propose that future advances in maize stress biology will require a transition from protein-centered analyses toward proteoform-centered investigations capable of resolving functionally distinct molecular species. The integration of top-down proteomics, phosphoproteomics, proteogenomics, and systems-level approaches is expected to provide a more comprehensive understanding of stress adaptation mechanisms and facilitate the identification of molecular determinants of climate resilience. Such efforts may ultimately support the development of maize cultivars better adapted to increasingly challenging environmental conditions. Full article

Climate change is increasingly reshaping agricultural systems across Central Europe through rising temperatures, altered precipitation regimes, droughts, heatwaves, and expanding biological risks. These pressures threaten the stability of conventional cropping systems while simultaneously affecting food safety, storage systems, processing infrastructure, and regional food security. This review explores the role of adaptive crop diversification as a key strategy for enhancing agricultural resilience in the face of future climate uncertainty. Drawing on IPCC AR6 scenarios, CMIP6 simulations, and EURO-CORDEX projections, we analyze major climatic stressors affecting Central European agriculture, including heat stress, hydrological instability, soil degradation, invasive pests, fungal pathogens, and mycotoxin contamination. Particular attention is given to shifts in crop suitability and the growing relevance of climate-resilient crops such as sorghum, millet, quinoa, chickpea, lentil, soybean, camelina, hemp, and miscanthus. Beyond field-level adaptation, the review highlights the critical role of post-harvest systems, storage infrastructure, processing adaptability, and food safety within climate-resilient food systems. We additionally evaluate socioeconomic barriers, policy frameworks, and emerging technological approaches, including digital agriculture and artificial intelligence. A central contribution of this review is the integration of crop diversification, food safety, post-harvest adaptation, and governance challenges within a unified climate-resilience framework for Central European agriculture. We conclude that long-term agricultural resilience in the region will require a systemic transformation that integrates ecological, technological, economic, institutional, and social dimensions of adaptation. Full article

Compound heat and drought events (CHDEs) increasingly threaten crop production, yet conventional assessments rarely account for phenological changes in crop heat sensitivity and water demand. Here, we developed a phenology-aware daily framework for summer maize in the Huang–Huai–Hai (HHH) Plain, China, integrating stage-specific heat thresholds with a crop-coefficient-adjusted standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI_K_C) and a fixed cultivation distribution. Using daily meteorological observations from 1980 to 2020, CHDEs were characterized across the sowing-to-jointing, jointing-to-tasseling, and tasseling-to-maturity stages. Across the growing season, CHDE frequency and mean duration increased significantly, whereas mean intensity declined. Stage-specific responses differed markedly: frequency increased across all stages, while the tasseling-to-maturity stage showed the fastest increase in frequency and a significant lengthening of duration. Potential exposure also became progressively concentrated over crop development and was highest during tasseling-to-maturity in major maize-producing areas. By incorporating phenological variation into both heat and drought characterization, this framework resolves within-season differences in compound stress that are obscured by uniform-threshold approaches and provides a crop-relevant basis for stage-targeted monitoring and adaptation. Full article

Peatlands, critical global carbon sinks, are facing increasing threats from climate change-driven heatwaves and droughts. These threats can cause a midday depression in carbon uptake through photosynthetic inhibition. Using high-temporal-resolution solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF; ~30 s) and chamber-based CO₂ flux measurements, we investigated the coupling between SIF and gross primary production (GPP) during extreme events (air temperature > 25 °C and vapour pressure deficit > 15 hPa) in a northern peatland. Our results show that SIF tracks GPP closely under non-stress conditions (daily R² = 0.86–0.96). However, during combined heat and drought stress, midday correlations collapsed (Case A: R² = 0.04 on 27 June; Case B: R² = 0.15 and 0.01 on 29 and 30 June, respectively), indicating severe decoupling. Importantly, we discovered legacy effects from multi-day heat exposure: on 26 June, vegetation with prior cumulative stress (Case A) showed weak morning coupling (R² = 0.07), while vegetation without prior stress history (Case B) maintained strong coupling (R² = 0.93). This suggests that cumulative stress alters baseline physiology and can exacerbate midday mismatches; therefore, not just current condition controls photosynthetic regulation. These findings highlight limitations of SIF-based GPP estimation at sub-daily timescales during stress, particularly in heterogeneous peatland systems where canopy composition and physiological responses could vary among plant functional types. Full article

Biochar has traditionally been investigated as a soil amendment for improving fertility, carbon sequestration, and nutrient retention. However, recent advances in fine milling, colloidal stabilization, and nanotechnology have enabled the development of biochar-derived materials for foliar application. Unlike conventional soil application, foliar delivery enables direct interaction with leaf tissues, potentially providing faster physiological responses, improved resource-use efficiency, and complementary functions to existing plant biostimulants. This review critically evaluates the scientific basis, agronomic performance, and regulatory implications of foliar biochar applications across diverse crop systems. We synthesize and compare major formulation types, including finely milled suspensions, aqueous extracts, nano-biochar dispersions, and biochar-based composite carriers, based on their formulation characteristics, application methods, and reported biological effects. Across multiple crops, foliar biochar has been associated with enhanced chlorophyll content, improved gas exchange, strengthened antioxidant systems, better osmotic adjustment, and increased nutrient uptake, particularly under abiotic stresses such as salinity, drought, and heat. Mechanistically, these responses are linked to surface deposition effects, redox-active functional groups, modulation of leaf microclimate, and delivery of soluble bioactive compounds. Nevertheless, outcomes remain highly context-dependent, influenced by feedstock origin, pyrolysis conditions, particle size, formulation chemistry, dose, and crop species. Potential risks including phytotoxicity, nanoparticle exposure, environmental fate, and regulatory ambiguity especially for nano-scale formulations pose additional challenges for large-scale adoption. By integrating physiological, agronomic, environmental, and legislative perspectives, this review also highlights key barriers to commercialization, including formulation stability, limited field-scale validation, environmental safety, and regulatory uncertainty, while identifying research priorities needed to determine whether foliar biochar can become a scalable and scientifically validated biostimulant for sustainable agriculture. Full article

Lotus corniculatus is a superior leguminous forage with multiple values including forage, ecological, ornamental and medicinal uses. It is also an ideal material for plant bioreactors. As a core technical approach, genetic transformation overcomes the constraints of traditional breeding and facilitates the targeted improvement in stress resistance and agronomic traits in this species. This review summarizes the research progress of the Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation of L. corniculatus, focusing on key procedures such as explant selection, strain selection, infection and co-cultivation regimes, basal medium composition, phytohormone regulation, as well as bacteria elimination and transformant screening strategies. We further elaborate on the applications of this transformation system in enhancing tolerance to abiotic stresses (salt, drought and heat), regulating quality-related traits, and developing plant-based vaccine bioreactors. Additionally, this paper critically discusses the major bottlenecks and challenges constraining existing genetic transformation systems in L. corniculatus, and evaluates the prospects for establishing high-efficiency and genetically stable transformation platforms. This review aims to provide theoretical foundations and technical references for germplasm innovation, molecular breeding and comprehensive utilization of L. corniculatus. Full article

Combined drought–heat stress is not adequately described by adding the responses to drought and heat in isolation. Water limitation restricts evaporative cooling, whereas high temperature increases atmospheric demand and threatens photosynthesis, proteostasis, and reproduction. To assess what has been demonstrated rather than merely proposed, we combined a structured narrative review with a study-level evidence map spanning genomics, multi-omics, and emerging artificial intelligence (AI). The PubMed search, updated on 9 August 2026, returned 254 records; targeted and backward searches contributed eight seminal or reviewer-nominated publications. Independent screening retained 90 verified publications: 69 direct combined-stress studies, 11 genomics studies, six original AI or prediction studies, and four reviews or quantitative syntheses used for context. No conserved molecular signature emerged. Response direction varied with soil water status, vapor-pressure deficit, stress order, tissue, and developmental stage. Carbon allocation, redox and proteostasis balance, reproductive failure, and recovery recurred across omics layers, although neither their direction nor their adaptive value was consistent. Genomic loci and predictive performance were also environment dependent. Direct uses of AI remain uncommon and currently support prioritization more convincingly than causal inference. We organize this uneven evidence as a ladder extending from molecular association to functional validation, multi-environment prediction, and cultivar deployment. The main shortage is not another nominal omics layer but harmonized factorial experiments that measure recovery and reproduction, report field-relevant environmental metadata, and include external validation. Full article

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of abiotic stresses, including salinity, drought, heat, and heavy metal toxicity, which strongly threaten productivity, quality, and market value in horticultural crops. Although plant biostimulants have been widely reviewed in agronomic crops, their role in horticultural systems remains less comprehensively synthesized, particularly across different crop groups, stress types, application methods, and molecular response mechanisms. This review addresses this gap by systematically compiling current evidence on the use of biostimulants to improve abiotic stress resilience in horticultural crops, with particular emphasis on morphological, physiological, biochemical, and recently emerging molecular responses, especially transcriptomic evidence with supporting metabolomic information where available. Publications were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection using two searches covering 2016–2025 for morphological/physiological responses and 2021–2025 for molecular/genetic responses. Of 780 records initially identified, 134 studies met the inclusion criteria. Across these studies, the most frequently evaluated biostimulants were seaweed extracts, humic and fulvic substances, protein hydrolysates, and microbial inoculants, particularly PGPR and AMF. Biostimulant application consistently improved stress tolerance by enhancing antioxidant capacity, osmotic adjustment, nutrient use efficiency, cell wall strengthening, and hormonal regulation. Foliar applications were frequently used for rapid mitigation of drought- and heat-induced canopy-level physiological responses, whereas soil/root-zone application was more common for salinity and heavy metal stress. Emerging molecular evidence, dominated by transcriptomic studies and supported by limited metabolomic data, indicates that biostimulants may induce molecular priming through stress-responsive gene networks and associated metabolic adjustments. Overall, biostimulants show strong potential to improve abiotic stress resilience in horticultural crops, but broader adoption is constrained by variable efficacy, limited mechanistic validation, and inconsistent regulatory frameworks. Future research should prioritize multi-environment validation and functional genetics to support more reliable and targeted biostimulant use. Full article

Fibrillins (FBNs) are conserved plastid-associated proteins implicated in plant development and abiotic stress responses; however, their roles in maize remain unclear. In this study, through a genome-wide bioinformatic analysis, we identified 14 ZmFBN genes in the maize genome and characterized their phylogeny, chromosomal distribution, gene structure, conserved motifs, and promoter cis-elements. ZmFBN members were grouped into several subfamilies that all retain a conserved PAP_fibrillin domain, whereas the variation in exon–intron organization, motif composition, and regulatory elements suggests functional diversification. Expression profiling revealed pronounced tissue-preferential patterns, with many genes highly expressed in leaves and reproductive tissues, and distinct responses to drought, salt, heat, and cold stresses. qRT-PCR assays showed that ZmFBN8 and ZmFBN9 are strongly induced by both salt and PEG-simulated drought, ZmFBN2 and ZmFBN5 are predominantly drought-responsive, and ZmFBN11 is mainly activated by salt. Genome-wide association analysis further detected significant loci near ZmFBN1 and ZmFBN4, whose allelic variants are associated with the survival rate under drought and with key agronomic traits, including the tassel branch number, flowering time, ear diameter, and kernel length. These results demonstrate that ZmFBN genes make diversified contributions to maize growth, development, and stress adaptation and highlight several members as promising targets for functional studies and the molecular breeding of stress-tolerant maize. Moreover, selection pressure analysis indicated ZmFBN7 experienced relaxed purifying selection, and ZmFBN12 underwent positive selection, which drives the functional diversification of the ZmFBN family during maize evolution. Full article

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench) is a nutritious crop widely adapted to grow in arid and semi-arid agro-ecologies, supporting millions of households, and it has the potential to enhance soil health. However, extreme drought and heat stress conditions curtail its yield potential, requiring global efforts to develop drought-tolerant and agronomically superior cultivars. The objective of this paper was to quantitatively assess the impact of drought stress on sorghum genotypes for agronomic and yield-related traits, based on global breeding efforts for drought-tolerant varieties to guide current and future improvement programmes. The study involved a meta-analysis based on 30 selected research papers published around the world that reported on sorghum agronomic and yield-related traits under non-stress (NS) and drought stress (DS) conditions. Data were extracted for the following vital traits: days to 50% flowering (DTF), days to 50% maturity (DTM), plant height (PH), number of tillers (TN), panicle length (PL), panicle width (PW), shoot biomass (SB), root biomass (RB), root-to-shoot biomass ratio (RS), stay green (SG), and grain yield (GY). The sorghum genotypes reported with drought tolerance exhibited a mean GY value of 3.30 t ha⁻¹, ranging from 0.55 to 8.39 t ha⁻¹ under DS conditions. Under NS conditions, the mean GY was 4.38 t ha⁻¹, with the top genotype scoring a GY of 14.1 t ha⁻¹. Drought reduced TN and GY by 42.12% and 27.18%, followed by PW (25.52%) and SB (22.12%)—in that order. The forest plot analysis revealed that drought had a negative effect on the assessed traits, highlighting the need for developing drought-tolerant cultivars. The highest effect sizes were calculated for TN (−1.83), followed by PW (−1.69), and SB (−1.33), whereas PL (−0.1) had the lowest, suggesting that PW and SB are critical for selection in drought-tolerance breeding. Under DS conditions, GY exhibited positive correlations with RS (r = 0.63), RB (r = 0.50), SB (r = 0.27), DTM (r = 0.26), and SG (r = 0.21). The findings of this study could guide future breeding efforts to develop drought-tolerant sorghum varieties. Full article

Climatic changes in the Mediterranean area affect grapevine growth and productivity due to an increase in the magnitude and frequency of extreme climatic events. Functional traits of the vegetative stages of grapevines are drivers of stress tolerance, and their characterization may aid in the selection of cultivars showing greater resistance. Our aim was to evaluate and compare the adaptability to hot and arid climatic conditions of two varieties typical of small satellite islands of Sicily (Zibibbo and Corinto) with the two most common grape varieties grown on the main island (Catarratto and Nero d’Avola). The four selected varieties grew in a common rain-fed experimental germplasm repository. We followed seasonal changes in stomatal conductance, leaf water potential and leaf temperature, relating them to leaf water relation traits and xylem structural characteristics of the leaf vein network. We observed significant differences in functional traits and physiological behaviour of the four cultivars. Leaf water potential at turgor loss point was one of the most informative traits, together with midday leaf water potential and midday stomatal conductance. Nero d’Avola, Catarratto, and Zibibbo showed the highest adaptability to Mediterranean summer–autumn drought and heat stress through different physiological strategies; whereas, Corinto appeared more vulnerable. These findings highlight the importance of functional trait analysis for supporting cultivar selection, vineyard management, and future breeding strategies under climate change scenarios. Full article

Abiotic stresses—drought, salinity, extreme temperature, flooding, and heavy-metal toxicity—constrain rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield worldwide, and the cellular programmes underlying them are unevenly distributed across cell types that bulk-tissue assays average together. This review examines, from a methodological standpoint, what single-cell and spatial omics technologies can and cannot establish about rice abiotic stress biology. We first define the modality space: single-cell omics measures RNA, chromatin accessibility, DNA methylation, protein, or metabolite features at the resolution of individual cells or nuclei, whereas spatial omics measures such features while retaining tissue coordinates; the two are complementary rather than interchangeable. We then treat each platform class—droplet-based scRNA-seq, combinatorial-indexing approaches including SPLiT-seq, nuclei-based snRNA-seq and multiome, sequencing-based and imaging-based spatial transcriptomics—under a common template covering measurement principle, the questions each can answer, applicability to rice tissues, dominant biases, and the inferences each cannot support. To make evidence strength comparable across a heterogeneous literature, we apply a four-tier scheme throughout: Tier A, direct rice cell-resolved or spatial evidence with functional or field validation; Tier B, robust rice functional and localization evidence without single-cell data; Tier C, cell-resolved evidence without causal validation; and Tier D, cross-species analogy or reasoned proposal. Applying this scheme shows that the genes with genuine breeding traction in rice—SUB1A, OsHKT1;5, OsHMA3, OsNRAMP5, DRO1—rest on Tier B evidence from classical genetics and field testing, whereas the most cell-resolved rice evidence concentrates in root outer layers and barrier formation at Tier C, and heat and cold stress, despite dominating yield loss, lack rice cell-resolved data almost entirely. We extend the discussion beyond transcriptomics to single-cell DNA methylome profiling, spatial proteomics and metabolomics, and three-dimensional analysis of thick plant tissues, in each case distinguishing demonstrated plant capability from mammalian-only capability, and we assess the expanding role of artificial intelligence in annotation, segmentation, batch correction, integration, and perturbation prediction alongside its documented failure modes. Rice, maize, and wheat are compared to identify transferable methodology. Cell-resolved omics has to date improved biological interpretation and candidate prioritization; demonstrating an incremental breeding advantage from it remains an unmet requirement. Full article