Molecular Adaptation Mechanisms of Plants to Environmental Stress
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 November 2025 | Viewed by 450
Special Issue Editor
Interests: plant ecophysiology; photosynthesis; biotic stress; abiotic stress; antioxidative mechanisms; photoprotective mechanisms; reactive oxygen species
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global climate change increases the frequency and intensity of weather conditions, thereby accelerating the adverse effects of environmental stress on plants. Plants can adapt to these environmental stresses, such as drought, high temperatures, high salinity, and heavy metal pollution, by undergoing molecular, cellular, and physiological changes. These changes include gene regulation, protein synthesis, and alterations in metabolism and structure. Examples include activating stress response genes, producing protective proteins, and altering membrane composition. Plants use molecular mechanisms such as non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) to dissipate excess light energy as heat; reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging to eliminate harmful ROS; photoprotective protein synthesis; and reorganization of thylakoids and protein complexes to safeguard photosynthetic machinery from damage caused by environmental stresses. Consequently, plants display a range of responses to tolerate and survive the adverse environmental conditions, adapting to biotic or abiotic stresses by using stress-sensing mechanisms and triggering signal transduction pathways, involving transcription factors and phytohormones, to activate stress-responsive genes. These adaptive responses to different stresses are interconnected via multiple stress perception and signaling pathways that exhibit crosstalk at various steps. Thus, improving our understanding of the regulatory mechanisms of the plant responses to the adaptation to environmental stresses could lead to the development of plants that are better adapted to different environmental stresses. This would, in turn, increase crop productivity and improve food security in the face of climate change.
Prof. Dr. Michael Moustakas
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- signal perception
- signal transduction
- post-translational modifications
- stress response genes
- reactive oxygen species
- osmoprotectant
- antioxidants
- plant hormones
- stress-related proteins
- climate change
- biotic stress
- abiotic stress
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