Defense Strategies of Cereals Affected by Abiotic and Biotic Stresses

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Crop Physiology and Crop Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2023) | Viewed by 2870

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: acclimatization to drought; signaling under stress; the physiological and biochemical response of the plant to stress
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E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Institute of Biology, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: molecular, biochemical, and physiological mechanisms of plant responses to pathogens and pests especially reactive oxygen and nitrogen species; enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants; sugars as signaling molecules; regulation of proteolysis and nitrogen metabolism; additional research topics concern the plant abiotic stress especially metallic trace elements and mechanisms of combined stresses
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In order to survive adverse conditions and continue growth and development, cereal plants, exposed to abiotic or biotic stressors, quickly and precisely recognize external stimuli. Moreover, from the agronomic point of view, it is important in which stage of cereal development the stress factor acts, which may undoubtedly affect the quantity and quality of cereal grain yield in the future. Cereal plants' responses to environmental factors are extremely complex. They can be observed at various levels of plant organization, from changes in the activity of basic biochemical processes such as respiration, and photosynthesis, to morphological and anatomical changes in plant organs. Biochemical changes are preceded by the activation of an efficient signaling system which includes hormones, and other molecules, such as reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). All signaling pathways can lead to the activation of proper transcription factors (TFs), enabling the transcription of genes crucial for maintaining plant homeostasis under stress by activation of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutases (SOD), peroxidases (POX) and catalases (CAT). Signal molecules also regulate the expression of different stress-responsive genes involved in the accumulation of compatible osmolytes, synthesis of late embryogenesis abundant (LEA) proteins, dehydrins, chitinases, glucanases, as well as other protective proteins, such as the heat shock protein (HSP).

This Special Issue accepts original publications or reviews papers concerning the physiological, biochemical, and genetic aspects of the plant's stress response.

Dr. Małgorzata Nykiel
Dr. Mateusz Labudda
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • abiotic stress
  • biotic stress
  • cereal
  • drought
  • heavy metal
  • salinity
  • low temperature
  • pathogen
  • pest
  • phytohormones
  • antioxidant enzymes
  • transcription factors
  • osmolytes
  • protective proteins

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 3626 KiB  
Article
Salt Tolerance Evaluation of Cucumber Germplasm under Sodium Chloride Stress
by Libin Li, Lianda Du, Qiwei Cao, Zonghui Yang, Yihan Liu, Hua Yang, Xi Duan and Zhaojuan Meng
Plants 2023, 12(16), 2927; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12162927 - 12 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1169
Abstract
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is an important horticultural crop worldwide. Sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl) in the surface soil are the major limiting factors in coastal areas of Shandong Province in China. Therefore, to understand the mechanism used [...] Read more.
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) is an important horticultural crop worldwide. Sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl) in the surface soil are the major limiting factors in coastal areas of Shandong Province in China. Therefore, to understand the mechanism used by cucumber to adapt to sodium chloride (NaCl), we analyzed the phenotypic and physiological indicators of eighteen cucumber germplasms after three days under 100 and 150 mM NaCl treatment. A cluster analysis revealed that eighteen germplasms could be divided into five groups based on their physiological indicators. The first three groups consisted of seven salt-tolerant and medium salt-tolerant germplasms, including HLT1128h, Zhenni, and MC2065. The two remaining groups consisted of five medium salt-sensitive germplasms, including DM26h and M1-2-h-10, and six salt-sensitive germplasms including M1XT and 228. A principal component analysis revealed that the trend of comprehensive scores was consistent with the segmental cluster analysis and survival rates of cucumber seedlings. Overall, the phenotype, comprehensive survival rate, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis revealed that the salt-tolerant and salt-sensitive germplasms were Zhenni, F11-15, MC2065, M1XT, M1-2-h-10, and DM26h. The results of this study will provide references to identify or screen salt-tolerant cucumber germplasms and lay a foundation for breeding salt-tolerant cucumber varieties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defense Strategies of Cereals Affected by Abiotic and Biotic Stresses)
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14 pages, 1769 KiB  
Article
Future Climate CO2 Reduces the Tungsten Effect in Rye Plants: A Growth and Biochemical Study
by Emad A. Alsherif, Dina Hajjar and Hamada AbdElgawad
Plants 2023, 12(10), 1924; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12101924 - 09 May 2023
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Abstract
Heavy metal pollution is one of the major agronomic challenges. Tungsten (W) exposure leads to its accumulation in plants, which in turn reduces plant growth, inhibits photosynthesis and induces oxidative damage. In addition, the predicted increase in CO2 could boost plant growth [...] Read more.
Heavy metal pollution is one of the major agronomic challenges. Tungsten (W) exposure leads to its accumulation in plants, which in turn reduces plant growth, inhibits photosynthesis and induces oxidative damage. In addition, the predicted increase in CO2 could boost plant growth under both optimal and heavy metal stress conditions. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of W on growth, photosynthetic parameters, oxidative stress and redox status in rye plants under ambient and elevated (eCO2) levels. To this end, rye plants were grown under the following conditions: ambient CO2 (aCO2, 420 ppm), elevated CO2 (eCO2, 720 ppm), W stress (350 mg kg−1 soil) and W+eCO2. W stress induced significant (p < 0.05) decreases in growth and photosynthesis, increases in oxidative damages (lipid peroxidation) and the antioxidant defense system, i.e., ascorbate (ASC), reduced glutathione (GSH), GSH reductase (GR), peroxidase (POX), catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), ASC peroxide (APX) and dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR). On the other hand, eCO2 decreased W uptake and improved photosynthesis, which sequentially improved plant growth. The obtained results showed that eCO2 can decrease the phytotoxicity risks of W in rye plants. This positive impact of eCO2 on reducing the negative effects of soil W was related to their ability to enhance plant photosynthesis, which in turn provided energy and a carbon source for scavenging the reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation caused by soil W stress. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Defense Strategies of Cereals Affected by Abiotic and Biotic Stresses)
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