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Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein

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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 May 2023) | Viewed by 15601

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Jill M. Farrant

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Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
Interests: I hold a Research Chair in Systems Biology Studies on Plant Desiccation Tolerance for Food security, which broadly explains my research interests. Technologies used: Biochemistry, biophysics, biotechnology, genomics, metabolomics, physiology, proteomics, and transcriptomics
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Dr. Mariam Awlia

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Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, Cape Town 7700, South Africa
Interests: plant stress tolerance; salinity; drought; genome-wide associations studies; high-throughput phenotyping; forward genetics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drought and salinity are important stress factors that negatively affect crop growth and productivity, and in the coming years, these stressors are predicted to increase so significantly that conventional agricultural practices will likely have to be abandoned, particularly in Africa, by 2050, due to them being largely ineffective (Barak and Farrant, 2015). To establish global food security for future generations, it is imperative to generate crops that can grow productively and resiliently in increasingly harsh environments.

Resurrection plants, because of their ability to tolerate the loss of over 95% of their cellular water content, present the most extreme and successful strategy for drought survival. Halophytes, on the other hand, survive under elevated levels of salinity. As salinity and desiccation both perturb plant water content, a similarity and overlap in the subcellular and molecular survival mechanisms are likely to be present and recruited during times of environmental stress. If so, the potential to generate crops with a higher tolerance to both of these stressors can be achieved. However, while considerable physiological and molecular information is available for each phenotype, at the moment, only a few studies have examined the crosstalk between these stressors in any one species. Our preliminary in silico and functional gene analyses of the monocot resurrection species, Eragrostis nindensis and Xerophyta schlechteri, indeed suggest overlapping genes, indicating an element of crosstalk.

In this special issue, we wish to bring together the latest insights into the mechanisms of vegetative desiccation and salinity tolerance, and if possible, the underlying transcriptional and molecular relationship between these abiotic stressors. Furthermore, we welcome articles that have examined the combined stresses of drought and salinity in any plant species that might give more insight into this crosstalk.

Prof. Dr. Jill M. Farrant
Dr. Mariam Awlia
Guest Editors

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Keywords

abiotic stress
drought tolerance
desiccation tolerance
extremophytes
genetic crosstalk
salinity tolerance signalling
resurrection plants

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 3636 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Antioxidative Defense, Suppressed Nitric Oxide Accumulation, and Synthesis of Protective Proteins in Roots and Leaves Contribute to the Desiccation Tolerance of the Resurrection Plant Haberlea rhodopensis

by Katya Georgieva, Gergana Mihailova, Liliana Gigova, Antoaneta V. Popova, Maya Velitchkova, Lyudmila Simova-Stoilova, Máté Sági-Kazár, Helga Zelenyánszki, Katalin Solymosi and Ádám Solti

Plants 2023, 12(15), 2834; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12152834 - 31 Jul 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 796

Abstract

The desiccation tolerance of plants relies on defense mechanisms that enable the protection of macromolecules, biological structures, and metabolism. Although the defense of leaf tissues exposed to solar irradiation is challenging, mechanisms that protect the viability of the roots, yet largely unexplored, are equally important for survival. Although the photosynthetic apparatus in leaves contributes to the generation of oxidative stress under drought stress, we hypothesized that oxidative stress and thus antioxidative defense is also predominant in the roots. Thus, we aimed for a comparative analysis of the protective mechanisms in leaves and roots during the desiccation of Haberlea rhodopensis. Consequently, a high content of non-enzymatic antioxidants and high activity of antioxidant enzymes together with the activation of specific isoenzymes were found in both leaves and roots during the final stages of desiccation of H. rhodopensis. Among others, catalase and glutathione reductase activity showed a similar tendency of changes in roots and leaves, whereas, unlike that in the leaves, superoxide dismutase activity was enhanced under severe but not under medium desiccation in roots. Nitric oxide accumulation in the root tips was found to be sensitive to water restriction but suppressed under severe desiccation. In addition to the antioxidative defense, desiccation induced an enhanced abundance of dehydrins, ELIPs, and sHSP 17.7 in leaves, but this was significantly better in roots. In contrast to leaf cells, starch remained in the cells of the central cylinder of desiccated roots. Taken together, protective compounds and antioxidative defense mechanisms are equally important in protecting the roots to survive desiccation. Since drought-induced damage to the root system fundamentally affects the survival of plants, a better understanding of root desiccation tolerance mechanisms is essential to compensate for the challenges of prolonged dry periods. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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14 pages, 2531 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Variability in Functional Traits along an Environmental Gradient in the South African Resurrection Plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia

by Rose A. Marks, Mpho Mbobe, Marilize Greyling, Jennie Pretorius, David Nicholas McLetchie, Robert VanBuren and Jill M. Farrant

Plants 2022, 11(10), 1332; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11101332 - 18 May 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2745

Abstract

Many desiccation-tolerant plants are widely distributed and exposed to substantial environmental variation across their native range. These environmental differences generate site-specific selective pressures that could drive natural variation in desiccation tolerance across populations. If identified, such natural variation can be used to target tolerance-enhancing characteristics and identify trait associations within a common genetic background. Here, we tested for natural variation in desiccation tolerance across wild populations of the South African resurrection plant Myrothamnus flabellifolia. We surveyed a suite of functional traits related to desiccation tolerance, leaf economics, and reproductive allocation in M. flabellifolia to test for trait associations and tradeoffs. Despite considerable environmental variation across the study area, M. flabellifolia plants were extremely desiccation tolerant at all sites, suggesting that tolerance is either maintained by selection or fixed in these populations. However, we detected notable associations between environmental variation, population characteristics, and fitness traits. Relative to mesic sites, plants in xeric sites were more abundant and larger, but were slower growing and less reproductive. The negative association between growth and reproduction with plant size and abundance pointed towards a potential growth–abundance tradeoff. The finding that M. flabellifolia is more common in xeric sites despite reductions in growth rate and reproduction suggests that these plants thrive in extreme aridity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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28 pages, 4644 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Desiccation Tolerance in Ramonda serbica Panc.: An Integrative Transcriptomic, Proteomic, Metabolite and Photosynthetic Study

by Marija Vidović, Ilaria Battisti, Ana Pantelić, Filis Morina, Giorgio Arrigoni, Antonio Masi and Sonja Veljović Jovanović

Plants 2022, 11(9), 1199; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11091199 - 28 Apr 2022

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2442

Abstract

The resurrection plant Ramonda serbica Panc. survives long desiccation periods and fully recovers metabolic functions within one day upon watering. This study aimed to identify key candidates and pathways involved in desiccation tolerance in R. serbica. We combined differential transcriptomics and proteomics, phenolic and sugar analysis, FTIR analysis of the cell wall polymers, and detailed analysis of the photosynthetic electron transport (PET) chain. The proteomic analysis allowed the relative quantification of 1192 different protein groups, of which 408 were differentially abundant between hydrated (HL) and desiccated leaves (DL). Almost all differentially abundant proteins related to photosynthetic processes were less abundant, while chlorophyll fluorescence measurements implied shifting from linear PET to cyclic electron transport (CET). The levels of H₂O₂ scavenging enzymes, ascorbate-glutathione cycle components, catalases, peroxiredoxins, Fe-, and Mn superoxide dismutase (SOD) were reduced in DL. However, six germin-like proteins (GLPs), four Cu/ZnSOD isoforms, three polyphenol oxidases, and 22 late embryogenesis abundant proteins (LEAPs; mainly LEA4 and dehydrins), were desiccation-inducible. Desiccation provoked cell wall remodeling related to GLP-derived H₂O₂/HO^● activity and pectin demethylesterification. This comprehensive study contributes to understanding the role and regulation of the main metabolic pathways during desiccation aiming at crop drought tolerance improvement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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13 pages, 1880 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Analysis of Comparative Transcriptome and Positively Selected Genes Reveal Adaptive Evolution in Leaf-Less and Root-Less Whisk Ferns

by Zengqiang Xia, Li Liu, Zuoying Wei, Faguo Wang, Hui Shen and Yuehong Yan

Plants 2022, 11(9), 1198; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11091198 - 28 Apr 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2482

Abstract

While roots and leaves have evolved independently in lycophytes, ferns and seed plants, there is still confusion regarding the morphological evolution of ferns, especially in whisk ferns, which lack true leaves and roots and instead only exhibit leaf-like appendages and absorptive rhizoids. In this study, analyses of comparative transcriptomics on positively selected genes were performed to provide insights into the adaptive evolution of whisk fern morphologies. Significantly clustered gene families specific to whisk ferns were mainly enriched in Gene Ontology (GO) terms “binding proteins” and “transmembrane transporter activity”, and positive selection was detected in genes involved in transmembrane transporter activities and stress response (e.g., sodium/hydrogen exchanger and heat shock proteins), which could be related to the adaptive evolution of tolerance to epiphytic environments. The analysis of TF/TR gene family sizes indicated that some rapidly evolving gene families (e.g., the GRF and the MADS-MIKC families) related to the development of morphological organs were commonly reduced in whisk ferns and ophioglossoid ferns. Furthermore, the WUS homeobox-containing (WOX) gene family and the knotted1-like homeobox (KNOX) gene family, both associated with root and leaf development, were phylogenetically conserved in whisk ferns and ophioglossoid ferns. In general, our results suggested that adaptive evolution to epiphytic environments might have occurred in whisk ferns. We propose that the simplified and reduced leaf and root system in whisk ferns is the result of reduction from the common ancestor of whisk ferns and ophioglossoid ferns, rather than an independent origin. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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13 pages, 1631 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sex Differences in Desiccation Tolerance Varies by Colony in the Mesic Liverwort Plagiochila porelloides

by Juliana da C. Silva-e-Costa, Andrea P. Luizi-Ponzo and David Nicholas McLetchie

Plants 2022, 11(4), 478; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11040478 - 10 Feb 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2562

Abstract

Water scarcity, a common stress factor, negatively impacts plant performance. Strategies to cope with it, such as desiccation tolerance, are becoming increasingly important to investigate. However, phenomena, such as intraspecific variation in stress responses have not received much attention. Knowledge of this variability and the environmental drivers can be leveraged to further investigate the mechanisms of desiccation tolerance. Here we tested for variation in desiccation tolerance in Plagiochila porelloides among colonies and sexes within the same riparian zone. Field-collected dehardened plants were subjected to a desiccation event, under controlled conditions and then rehydrated. Plant water status, photosynthetic rates, net carbon gain, and efficiency of photosystem II (PSII) were assayed to evaluate tissue desiccation, basic metabolic processes and plant recovery. To establish a linkage between plant response and environmental factors, field light conditions were measured. We detected intraspecific variation, where a more exposed colony (high percentage of open sky, large temporal range of light quantity, and high red/far-red ratio) showed sex differences in desiccation tolerance and recovery. Overall, PSII recovery occurred by 72 h after rehydration, with a positive carbon gain occurring by day 30. This within species variation suggests plastic or genetic effects, and likely association with light conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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Review

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22 pages, 3494 KiB

Open AccessReview

Exploring the High Variability of Vegetative Desiccation Tolerance in Pteridophytes

by Gerardo Alejo-Jacuinde and Luis Herrera-Estrella

Plants 2022, 11(9), 1222; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11091222 - 30 Apr 2022

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3586

Abstract

In the context of plant evolution, pteridophytes, which is comprised of lycophytes and ferns, occupy an intermediate position between bryophytes and seed plants, sharing characteristics with both groups. Pteridophytes is a highly diverse group of plant species that occupy a wide range of habitats including ecosystems with extreme climatic conditions. There is a significant number of pteridophytes that can tolerate desiccation by temporarily arresting their metabolism in the dry state and reactivating it upon rehydration. Desiccation-tolerant pteridophytes exhibit a strategy that appears to be intermediate between the constitutive and inducible desiccation tolerance (DT) mechanisms observed in bryophytes and angiosperms, respectively. In this review, we first describe the incidence and anatomical diversity of desiccation-tolerant pteridophytes and discuss recent advances on the origin of DT in vascular plants. Then, we summarize the highly diverse adaptations and mechanisms exhibited by this group and describe how some of these plants could exhibit tolerance to multiple types of abiotic stress. Research on the evolution and regulation of DT in different lineages is crucial to understand how plants have adapted to extreme environments. Thus, in the current scenario of climate change, the knowledge of the whole landscape of DT strategies is of vital importance as a potential basis to improve plant abiotic stress tolerance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Desiccation/Salinity Tolerance and the Crosstalk Therein)

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