Interactions Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2020) | Viewed by 7906

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Biological Sciences, University of Manitoba, W479 Duff Roblin Bldg, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada
Interests: plant stress physiology; salinity tolerance of northern woody plants, medicinal plants, and crops; cross tolerance (salinity and cold; salinity and herbivory); revegetation of mine tailings; land reclamation
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Guest Editor
Department of Biology, University of Winnipeg, 599 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3B 2G3, Canada
Interests: plant–animal interactions; herbivory; tolerance; resistance; resource allocation; sexual systems of plants; dioecy; monoecy; pollination; evolution of plant responses to herbivores; evolution of plant mating systems
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the re-opening of the Special Issue on Interactions between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in plants.
At any one time, a plethora of biotic and abiotic factors affect the ability of plants to germinate, grow, survive, and reproduce. To date, most studies of abiotic stress in plants have not considered how plant responses to abiotic factors may affect and be affected by plant interactions with herbivores, pollinators, and mycorrhiza, among other biotic agents. Conversely, studies that focus on biotic interactions have rarely addressed the possible role of abiotic stressors such as salinity, freezing, and drought. However, in natural environments, plants may be simultaneously exposed to multiple biotic and abiotic factors that cause stress directly or indirectly. In the past decade, more researchers have started studying the simultaneous responses of plants to biotic and abiotic stress factors, and they have found both antagonistic and synergistic effects. Indeed, more studies have addressed the mechanistic causes and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of plant responses to multiple stresses. However, we have only started to understand such responses within a more integrative framework.
Our own efforts to promote the integrated study of plant responses to simultaneous biotic and abiotic stress factors included the first call for papers for a Special Issue of Plants in 2013. Since, then, many research groups around the world have made important progress in the field. In the meantime, Plants has earned broader recognition and is due to receive its first Impact Factor from ISI in June 2019. Therefore, we feel it is a good time to take a look at the progress in this field with a new call for contributions to the Special Issue on ‘’Interactions Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses’’.
This Special Issue will focus on recent research on the combined effects of abiotic stresses such as salinity, heat/cold, or drought with those generated by biotic interactions like herbivory, nectar robbing, etc. Given the relatively larger number of published papers on pathogens (rusts, wilts, smuts, etc.), we encourage the submission of studies that include interactions of plants with herbivores (miners, gallers, aphids, chewers, seed parasites, etc.) or flower visitors, and we welcome particularly those studies that aim to integrate ecological, evolutionary, physiological, and/or biochemical frameworks.

Dr. Sylvie Renault
Dr. Germán Avila Sakar
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

  • abiotic–biotic stress interactions
  • multiple stress factors
  • plant stress
  • cross tolerance
  • salinity stress and herbivory
  • drought and herbivory
  • salinity stress and pollinators
  • drought and pollinators
  • cold stress and biotic interactions
  • heat stress and biotic interactions

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 6155 KiB  
Article
Bacterial Compound N,N-Dimethylhexadecylamine Modulates Expression of Iron Deficiency and Defense Response Genes in Medicago truncatula Independently of the Jasmonic Acid Pathway
by Vicente Montejano-Ramírez, Ernesto García-Pineda and Eduardo Valencia-Cantero
Plants 2020, 9(5), 624; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9050624 - 14 May 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3041
Abstract
Plants face a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses including attack by microbial phytopathogens and nutrient deficiencies. Some bacterial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) activate defense and iron-deficiency responses in plants. To establish a relationship between defense and iron deficiency through VOCs, we identified [...] Read more.
Plants face a variety of biotic and abiotic stresses including attack by microbial phytopathogens and nutrient deficiencies. Some bacterial volatile organic compounds (VOCs) activate defense and iron-deficiency responses in plants. To establish a relationship between defense and iron deficiency through VOCs, we identified key genes in the defense and iron-deprivation responses of the legume model Medicago truncatula and evaluated the effect of the rhizobacterial VOC N,N-dimethylhexadecylamine (DMHDA) on the gene expression in these pathways by RT-qPCR. DMHDA increased M. truncatula growth 1.5-fold under both iron-sufficient and iron-deficient conditions compared with untreated plants, whereas salicylic acid and jasmonic acid decreased growth. Iron-deficiency induced iron uptake and defense gene expression. Moreover, the effect was greater in combination with DMHDA. Salicylic acid, Pseudomonas syringae, jasmonic acid, and Botrytis cinerea had inhibitory effects on growth and iron response gene expression but activated defense genes. Taken together, our results showed that the VOC DMHDA activates defense and iron-deprivation pathways while inducing a growth promoting effect unlike conventional phytohormones, highlighting that DMHDA does not mimic jasmonic acid but induces an alternative pathway. This is a novel aspect in the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic stresses. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants)
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17 pages, 3437 KiB  
Article
Molecular Effects of Xylella fastidiosa and Drought Combined Stress in Olive Trees
by Mariarosaria De Pascali, Marzia Vergine, Erika Sabella, Alessio Aprile, Eliana Nutricati, Francesca Nicolì, Ilaria Buja, Carmine Negro, Antonio Miceli, Patrizia Rampino, Luigi De Bellis and Andrea Luvisi
Plants 2019, 8(11), 437; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants8110437 - 23 Oct 2019
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 4099
Abstract
Due to global climate change, complex combinations of stresses are expected to occur, among which the interaction between pathogens and drought stress may have a significant effect on growth and yield. In this study, the Xylella fastidiosa (Xf)-resistant cultivar Leccino and [...] Read more.
Due to global climate change, complex combinations of stresses are expected to occur, among which the interaction between pathogens and drought stress may have a significant effect on growth and yield. In this study, the Xylella fastidiosa (Xf)-resistant cultivar Leccino and the susceptible one Cellina di Nardò were subjected to (a) individual drought stress, (b) Xf infection and (c) combination of both stress conditions. Here we report the physiological response to stresses in water content in leaves and the modulation in the expression level of seven genes responsive to plant water status and pathogen infection. In Xf-resistant plants, higher expression levels are reported for genes belonging to ROS-scavenging systems and for genes involved in pathogen stress (pathogenesis-related, PR, and leucine-rich repeat genes, LRR-RLK). However, PR and LRR-RLK were not further induced by water deficit. Interestingly, the genes related to drought response (aquaporin, PIP2.1, dehydration responsive element binding, DREB, and dehydrin, DHN), which induction was higher in Cellina di Nardò compared to Leccino during drought stress, was poorly induced in Xf-susceptible plants when Xf occur. Conversely, DHN was induced by Xf presence in Leccino. These results were consistent with observations on water content. Indeed, response was similar in Leccino regardless kind of stress or combination, whereas a strong reduction was observed in Xf-susceptible plants infected by Xf or in presence of combined stresses. Thus, the reported findings indicate that resistance of Leccino to Xf could be linked to its lower resistance to water stress, probably leading to the activation of alternative defense pathways that support the plant in Xf response. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interactions Between Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Plants)
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