Plants exposed to certain abiotic stress conditions tend to produce the amino acid proline, which acts as an active osmolyte, a metal chelator, an antioxidant, and a signaling molecule. There is increasing evidence that proline accumulates in plants due to a wide range of abiotic stress, in particular high soil salinity and drought. Therefore, proline content is often used as a marker-assisted ...

Plants are constantly confronted to both abiotic and biotic stresses that seriously reduce their productivity. Plant responses to these stresses are complex and involve numerous physiological, molecular, and cellular adaptations. Recent evidence shows that a combination of abiotic and biotic stress can have a positive effect on plant performance by reducing the susceptibility to biotic stress. ...

Abiotic stresses elicit complex cellular responses. This complexity made many believe for a long time that tolerance to abiotic stresses cannot be experimentally manipulated. Fortunately, this contention has proven wrong in recent years. Considered once to be an arduous task, genetic engineering for increasing tolerance to abiotic stresses has been achieved to an extent. This change has come du...

Abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, heat, and cold, negatively affect maize (Zea mays L.) development and productivity. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of resistance to abiotic stresses in maize, RNA-seq was used for global transcriptome profiling of B73 seedling leaves exposed to drought, salinity, heat, and cold stress. A total of 5,330 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) w...

Approximately 80% of human food is composed of crops, which are dominated by cereals that collectively make up 50% of global food production (Langridge and Fleury, 2011). Among cereal crops, rice, wheat, and maize provide approximately half of the calories consumed worldwide. Nevertheless, crop production is seriously hampered by influential abiotic stresses like drought, climate fluctuations, ...

Abiotic stresses cause extensive losses to agricultural production worldwide. Acclimation of plants to abiotic conditions such as drought, salinity, or heat is mediated by a complex network of transcription factors and other regulatory genes that control multiple defense enzymes, proteins, and pathways. Associated with the activity of different transcription factors are transcriptional coactiva...

1. The stress-gradient hypothesis (SGH) predicts that the frequency of facilitative and competitive interactions will vary inversely across abiotic stress gradients, with facilitation being more common when abiotic stress is high. The effect of competition intensity on species richness is generally thought to be negative, but tests along true stress gradients are lacking. This body of research ...