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Agronomy
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Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Grass...
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Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Grass Species

A special issue of Agronomy (ISSN 2073-4395). This special issue belongs to the section "Grassland and Pasture Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 December 2025 | Viewed by 1998

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Zhou Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Grassland Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Interests: forage or ground-cover plant in response to abiotic stresses such as heat or cold stress, drought, and ionic stress (salt, aluminum, or cadmium); turf management; stress-defensive gene and protein; omics study; signal transduction; gene function; phytohormone; plant growth regulator
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Gang Nie

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Grassland Science and Technology, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China
Interests: physiological and molecular mechanisms of forage or turf-grass in response to abiotic stresses such as high-temperature stress, salinity stress, and drought stress; the development and utilization of multi-function grass species; gene function

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Abiotic stresses such as drought, high temperature, salinity stress, and heavy metal stress have become problems all over the world due to global warming. Grass species, the third most abundant flowering plants, have been widely used as forage, bioenergy plants, turfgrass, ornamental grass, and ground-cover plants for landscaping and ecological rehabilitation. Grass species have developed multiple adaptive strategies to counter complex environmental stresses during the long process of evolution. An in-depth understanding of adaptive strategies for dealing with various abiotic stresses in grass species will be beneficial to better utilize these grasses in different ecoregions and in the breeding of new cultivars with stronger stress tolerance. This Special Issue aims to reveal the physiological and molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in grass species responding to complex environmental stresses based on changes in phenotype, physiology, metabolic pathway, and molecular level. Transgenic technology and omics studies, including transcriptomics, proteomics, ionomics, metabolomics, genomics, or phenomics, are important approaches to reveal plant adaptation to complex environmental stresses. Research papers and up-to-date review articles are welcome to be submitted.

Prof. Dr. Zhou Li
Prof. Dr. Gang Nie
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. Agronomy is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • turfgrass
  • forage
  • ground-cover plant
  • gene function
  • stress physiology
  • metabolic pathway
  • omics
  • plant growth regulator

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 5685 KiB  
Article
Widely Targeted Metabolomics and Transcriptomics Analysis of the Response and Adaptation Mechanisms of Trifolium ambiguum to Low-Temperature Stress
by Kefan Cao, Sijing Wang, Huimin Zhang, Yiming Ma, Qian Wu and Mingjiu Wang
Agronomy 2025, 15(2), 308; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15020308 - 26 Jan 2025
Viewed by 571
Abstract
Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum M.Bieb.) is a perennial legume known for its exceptional cold tolerance, commonly used in agriculture and ecosystems in cold climates. Given the impact of climate change, enhancing the cold adaptation of Caucasian clover is crucial for sustaining agricultural [...] Read more.
Caucasian clover (Trifolium ambiguum M.Bieb.) is a perennial legume known for its exceptional cold tolerance, commonly used in agriculture and ecosystems in cold climates. Given the impact of climate change, enhancing the cold adaptation of Caucasian clover is crucial for sustaining agricultural productivity. This study employs metabolomics, transcriptomics, and Weighted Gene Co-expression Network Analysis (WGCNA) to investigate the molecular mechanisms of Caucasian clover’s response to low-temperature stress. Metabolomic analysis showed that low-temperature stress triggered the accumulation of fatty acids, amino acids, and antioxidants, which are critical for maintaining membrane stability and antioxidant capacity, thus protecting the plant from oxidative damage. Transcriptomic analysis revealed significant upregulation of genes involved in cold adaptation, particularly those related to antioxidant defense, membrane lipid repair, and signal transduction, including genes in the ABA signaling pathway and antioxidant enzymes, thereby improving cold tolerance. WGCNA identified gene modules closely linked to cold adaptation, especially those involved in antioxidant defense, fatty acid metabolism, signal transduction, and membrane repair. These modules function synergistically, with coordinated gene expression enhancing cold resistance. This study also investigated the isoflavonoid biosynthesis pathway under low-temperature stress, highlighting its role in enhancing antioxidant capacity and cold tolerance. Low-temperature stress induced upregulation of key enzyme genes, such as Isoflavone Synthase (IFS) and Isoflavone-7-O-Glucosyltransferase (IF7GT), promoting antioxidant metabolite accumulation and further enhancing the plant’s cold adaptation. Overall, this study offers novel molecular insights into the cold tolerance mechanisms of Caucasian clover and provides valuable theoretical support for breeding cold-resistant crops in cold climates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Grass Species)
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19 pages, 3457 KiB  
Article
Cross-Stressful Adaptation to Drought and High Salinity Is Related to Variable Antioxidant Defense, Proline Metabolism, and Dehydrin b Expression in White Clover
by Yao Ling, Duo Wang, Yan Peng, Dandan Peng and Zhou Li
Agronomy 2025, 15(1), 126; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy15010126 - 7 Jan 2025
Viewed by 816
Abstract
A previous exposure to drought priming (DP) or salt priming (SP) could significantly improve future tolerance to both the same and different abiotic stresses, which is an effective mitigation strategy for plants to adapt to changing environmental conditions. If the type of stress [...] Read more.
A previous exposure to drought priming (DP) or salt priming (SP) could significantly improve future tolerance to both the same and different abiotic stresses, which is an effective mitigation strategy for plants to adapt to changing environmental conditions. If the type of stress priming is different from subsequent abiotic stress, this indicates that plants are trained to acquire cross tolerance. The objective of this study was to explore DP-regulated cross tolerance to salt stress and SP-induced cross tolerance to drought associated with changes in growth, antioxidant defense, proline metabolism, and the expression of the dehydration-responsive gene Dehydrin b involved in the stabilization of membrane systems, cryoprotection of intracellular proteins, and enhancement in water retention capacity in white clover (Trifolium repens). Plants were pretreated by initial DP or SP and then subjected to subsequent salt stress or drought stress for 10 days, respectively. The results demonstrated that DP significantly increased number of roots during subsequent salt stress, whereas SP significantly improved stem length, root length, and number of roots under drought stress, which indicated that the SP exhibited more pronounced and positive effects on mitigating subsequent drought-induced growth retardant. Both salt stress and drought resulted in significant increases in electrolyte leakage and contents of superoxide anion, hydrogen peroxide, and malonaldehyde due to reduced superoxide dismutase, peroxide, and catalase, as well as key enzyme activities in the ascorbate–glutathione cycle. SP or DP could significantly enhance these enzyme activities to alleviate subsequent drought- or salt-induced oxidative damage. SP or DP also significantly improved the accumulation of proline contributing to better water homeostasis by promoting biosynthetic enzyme activities (Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase and aminotransferase) and restricting proline dehydrogenase activity for proline degradation under drought or salt stress, respectively. In addition, SP significantly up-regulated the expression of dehydrin b under drought stress, but DP failed to induce the expression of dehydrin b in response to subsequent salt stress. The current findings proved that the pre-exposure of white clover plants to DP or SP could effectively mitigate the negative effects of subsequent salt stress or drought related to some common and different pathways. Plants pretreated by initial DP or SP exhibited better adaption to subsequent different stress by regulating growth, physiological, metabolic, and transcriptional changes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Physiological and Molecular Mechanisms of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Grass Species)
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