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Plants
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Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance
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Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance

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 (20 December 2023) | Viewed by 6765

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Ramon Gerardo Guevara-Gonzalez

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Guest Editor
Center of Applied Research in Biosystems-CARB, School of Engineering-Campus Amazcala, Autonomous University of Queretaro, Amazcala, El Marques, Querétaro 76265, Mexico
Interests: plant physiology of stress; plant molecular biology; plant biochemistry; plant pathology; plant biotechnology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

There are a number of challenges facing the maintenance of agricultural production worldwide, most of which are the result of climate change. Agriculture is the main food production activity, and the strategies that are commonly used have achieved high plant performance that have also demonstrated obvious environmental constraints as well as problems affecting the health of consumers. It is urgent to identify and apply sustainable strategies that allow agricultural activities to function in harmony with the environment, and such strategies should be applied to both protected and open-field plant production systems. According to the stress theory, it is possible to find stress doses that can be adequately managed and that can enhance plant performance. This latter stress scenario is called “eustress”, and the stress factors that can be used in this sense can be of biological (also called elicitors), chemical non-biological, or physical in origin. Strategies involving the use of eustressors in agricultural and horticultural practices should be of high importance for the sustainability of plant-based food production in the future. Based on the aforementioned issues, this Special Issue aims to present recent results from researchers worldwide involving basic and/or applied knowledge regarding the benefits of eustressors when applied in plant production, either at levels of basic plant science, including at the physiological, molecular, biochemical, epigenetic levels, the agronomical effects, etc. Both research articles as well as reviews involving these aspects are welcome.

Dr. Ramon Gerardo Guevara-Gonzalez
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 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

  • plant performance
  • eustress
  • plant physiology of stress
  • plant molecular biology
  • plant biochemistry

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 2156 KiB  
Article
Silicon Induces Heat and Salinity Tolerance in Wheat by Increasing Antioxidant Activities, Photosynthetic Activity, Nutrient Homeostasis, and Osmo-Protectant Synthesis
by Ansa Aouz, Imran Khan, Muhammad Bilal Chattha, Shahbaz Ahmad, Muqarrab Ali, Iftikhar Ali, Abid Ali, Fatmah M. Alqahtani, Mohamed Hashem, Tasahil S. Albishi, Sameer H. Qari, Muhammad Umer Chatta and Muhammad Umair Hassan
Plants 2023, 12(14), 2606; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12142606 - 10 Jul 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1217
Abstract
Modern agriculture is facing the challenges of salinity and heat stresses, which pose a serious threat to crop productivity and global food security. Thus, it is necessary to develop the appropriate measures to minimize the impacts of these serious stresses on field crops. [...] Read more.
Modern agriculture is facing the challenges of salinity and heat stresses, which pose a serious threat to crop productivity and global food security. Thus, it is necessary to develop the appropriate measures to minimize the impacts of these serious stresses on field crops. Silicon (Si) is the second most abundant element on earth and has been recognized as an important substance to mitigate the adverse effects of abiotic stresses. Thus, the present study determined the role of Si in mitigating adverse impacts of salinity stress (SS) and heat stress (HS) on wheat crop. This study examined response of different wheat genotypes, namely Akbar-2019, Subhani-2021, and Faisalabad-2008, under different treatments: control, SS (8 dSm−1), HS, SS + HS, control + Si, SS + Si, HS+ Si, and SS + HS+ Si. This study’s findings reveal that HS and SS caused a significant decrease in the growth and yield of wheat by increasing electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA), and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) production; sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) accumulation; and decreasing relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll and carotenoid content, total soluble proteins (TSP), and free amino acids (FAA), as well as nutrient uptake (potassium, K; calcium, Ca; and magnesium, Mg). However, Si application offsets the negative effects of both salinity and HS and improved the growth and yield of wheat by increasing chlorophyll and carotenoid contents, RWC, antioxidant activity, TSP, FAA accumulation, and nutrient uptake (Ca, K, and Mg); decreasing EL, electrolyte leakage, MDA, and H2O2; and restricting the uptake of Na+ and Cl−. Thus, the application of Si could be an important approach to improve wheat growth and yield under normal and combined saline and HS conditions by improving plant physiological functioning, antioxidant activities, nutrient homeostasis, and osmolyte accumulation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance)
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11 pages, 1609 KiB  
Article
Biostimulant and Elicitor Responses to Cricket Frass (Acheta domesticus) in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under Protected Conditions
by Ema Alejandra Ferruzca-Campos, Amanda Kim Rico-Chavez, Ramón Gerardo Guevara-González, Miguel Urrestarazu, Tatiana Pagan Loeiro Cunha-Chiamolera, Rosalía Reynoso-Camacho and Rosario Guzmán-Cruz
Plants 2023, 12(6), 1327; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12061327 - 15 Mar 2023
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1772
Abstract
Agriculture in the current century is seeking sustainable tools in order to generate plant production systems with minimal negative environmental impact. In recent years it has been shown that the use of insect frass is an option to be used for this purpose. [...] Read more.
Agriculture in the current century is seeking sustainable tools in order to generate plant production systems with minimal negative environmental impact. In recent years it has been shown that the use of insect frass is an option to be used for this purpose. The present work studied the effect of low doses (0.1, 0.5, and 1.0% w/w) of cricket frass (Acheta domesticus) in the substrate during the cultivation of tomatos under greenhouse conditions. Plant performance and antioxidant enzymatic activities were measured in the study as explicative variables related to plant stress responses in order to determine possible biostimulant or elicitor effects of cricket frass treatments during tomato cultivation under greenhouse conditions. The main findings of this study indicated that tomato plants responded in a dose dependent manner to cricket frass treatments, recalling the hormesis phenomenon. On the one hand, a 0.1% (w/w) cricket frass treatment showed typical biostimulant features, while on the other hand, 0.5 and 1.0% treatments displayed elicitor effects in tomato plants under evaluated conditions in the present study. These results support the possibility that low doses of cricket frass might be used in tomato cultivation (and perhaps in other crops) for biostimulant/elicitor input into sustainable production systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance)
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20 pages, 5909 KiB  
Article
Medicago sativa L. Plant Response against Possible Eustressors (Fe, Ag, Cu)-TiO2: Evaluation of Physiological Parameters, Total Phenol Content, and Flavonoid Quantification
by Luis Páramo, Ana Angélica Feregrino-Pérez, Marina Vega-González, Luis Escobar-Alarcón and Karen Esquivel
Plants 2023, 12(3), 659; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12030659 - 02 Feb 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1469
Abstract
The present study analyzed Medicago sativa L. crops irrigated by TiO2 in the anatase phase and TiO2 doped with Ag, Fe, and Cu ions at 0.1%w synthesized using the sol–gel method (SG) and the sol–gel method coupled with microwave (Mw-SG). The [...] Read more.
The present study analyzed Medicago sativa L. crops irrigated by TiO2 in the anatase phase and TiO2 doped with Ag, Fe, and Cu ions at 0.1%w synthesized using the sol–gel method (SG) and the sol–gel method coupled with microwave (Mw-SG). The materials were added to the irrigation water at different concentrations (50, 100, and 500 ppm). Stress induction by nanomaterials was observed by measuring stem morphology, chlorophyll index, total phenols and flavonoids, and antioxidant activity through the DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazy) radical inhibition assay. The nanomaterial treatments caused statistically significant reductions in parameters such as stem length, leaf size, and chlorophyll index and increases in total phenol content and DPPH inhibition percentage. However, the observed effects did not show clear evidence regarding the type of nanomaterial used, its synthesis methodology, or a concentration-dependent response. By generally grouping the results obtained to the type of dopant used and the synthesis method, the relationship between them was determined employing a two-way ANOVA. It was observed that the dopant factors, synthesis, and interaction were relevant for most treatments. Additionally, the addition of microwaves in the synthesis method resulted in the largest number of treatments with a significant increase in the total content of phenols and the % inhibition compared to the traditional sol–gel synthesis. In contrast, parameters such as stem size and chlorophyll index were affected under different treatments from both synthesis methods. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance)
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15 pages, 1394 KiB  
Article
Elicitation of Bacillus cereus-Amazcala (B.c-A) with SiO2 Nanoparticles Improves Its Role as a Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria (PGPB) in Chili Pepper Plants
by Noelia I. Ferrusquía-Jiménez, Beatriz González-Arias, Alicia Rosales, Karen Esquivel, Eleazar M. Escamilla-Silva, Adrian E. Ortega-Torres and Ramón G. Guevara-González
Plants 2022, 11(24), 3445; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11243445 - 09 Dec 2022
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 1854
Abstract
Agriculture needs to decrease the use of agrochemicals due to their high toxicity and adopt new strategies to achieve sustainable food production. Therefore, nanoparticles (NPs) and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have been proposed as viable strategies to obtain better crop yields with less [...] Read more.
Agriculture needs to decrease the use of agrochemicals due to their high toxicity and adopt new strategies to achieve sustainable food production. Therefore, nanoparticles (NPs) and plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) have been proposed as viable strategies to obtain better crop yields with less environmental impact. Here, we describe the effect of silica nanoparticles (SiO2-NPs) on survival, antioxidant enzymatic activity, phosphate solubilization capacity, and gibberellin production of Bacillus cereus-Amazcala (B.c-A). Moreover, the effect of the co-application of SiO2-NPs and B.c-A on seed germination, physiological characteristics, and antioxidant enzymatic activity of chili pepper plants was investigated under greenhouse conditions. The results indicated that SiO2-NPs at 100 ppm enhanced the role of B.c-A as PGPB by increasing its phosphate solubilization capacity and the production of GA7. Moreover, B.c-A catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities were increased with SiO2-NPs 100 ppm treatment, indicating that SiO2-NPs act as a eustressor, inducing defense-related responses. The co-application of SiO2-NPs 100 ppm and B.c-A improved chili pepper growth. There was an increase in seed germination percentage, plant height, number of leaves, and number and yield of fruits. There was also an increase in CAT and PAL activities in chili pepper plants, indicating that bacteria–NP treatment induces plant immunity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Eustressors to Enhance Plant Performance)
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