Towards climate-smart crops: advances in plant stress biology research

Abiotic and biotic stresses remain major constraints affecting plant growth, development, and crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses, both individually and in combination, is therefore essential for developing resilient crop systems and ensuring sustainable agricultural production. This special issue, comprising 32 articles including both review and research papers, highlights recent advances in plant stress biology and provides insights into the mechanisms underlying plant adaptation to diverse environmental challenges. A major focus of the issue is on heat stress tolerance and its interaction with other stresses such as drought, particularly during critical developmental stages in crops such as rice and wheat. Several contributions examine physiological, molecular, and genomic mechanisms associated with stress tolerance, including studies on HSP100 proteins and thermotolerance, drought tolerance in indigenous finger millet, salinity responses in rice and chickpea, and alternative splicing events under salt stress. The issue also includes investigations into plant responses to combined abiotic and biotic stresses, such as heat and aphid stress in wheat, as well as research on plant defense mechanisms against pathogens, including the induction of defense enzymes against mango anthracnose and metabolite-mediated resistance to cucumber downy mildew. In addition, several articles explore beneficial plant–microbe interactions, such as cyanobacterial root microbiomes and microbial consortia that enhance drought tolerance. Advances in genomics and transcriptomics are highlighted through genome-wide analyses of stress-responsive gene families and endophyte-mediated transcriptomic regulation. The issue further covers methodological developments, that integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning with multi-omics data for plant stress research. Collectively, the articles presented in this special issue provide valuable insights into plant stress responses and offer potential strategies for improving crop resilience under changing environmental conditions.

Header:

Background Abiotic and biotic stresses remain major constraints affecting plant growth, development, and crop productivity worldwide. Understanding plant responses to these stresses, both individually and in combination, is therefore essential for developing resilient crop systems and ensuring sustainable agricultural production.

Header:

Methods This special issue, comprising 32 articles including both review and research papers, highlights recent advances in plant stress biology and provides insights into the mechanisms underlying plant adaptation to diverse environmental challenges. The issue further covers methodological developments that integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning with multi-omics data for plant stress research.

Header:

Results A major focus of the issue is on heat stress tolerance and its interaction with other stresses such as drought, particularly during critical developmental stages in crops such as rice and wheat. Several contributions examine physiological, molecular, and genomic mechanisms associated with stress tolerance, including studies on HSP100 proteins and thermotolerance, drought tolerance in indigenous finger millet, salinity responses in rice and chickpea, and alternative splicing events under salt stress. The issue also includes investigations into plant responses to combined abiotic and biotic stresses, such as heat and aphid stress in wheat, as well as research on plant defense mechanisms against pathogens, including the induction of defense enzymes against mango anthracnose and metabolite-mediated resistance to cucumber downy mildew. In addition, several articles explore beneficial plant–microbe interactions, such as cyanobacterial root microbiomes and microbial consortia that enhance drought tolerance. Advances in genomics and transcriptomics are highlighted through genome-wide analyses of stress-responsive gene families and endophyte-mediated transcriptomic regulation.

Header:

Data Summary This special issue comprises 32 articles including both review and research papers. Several contributions examine physiological, molecular, and genomic mechanisms associated with stress tolerance, including studies on HSP100 proteins and thermotolerance, drought tolerance in indigenous finger millet, salinity responses in rice and chickpea, and alternative splicing events under salt stress.

Header:

Conclusions Collectively, the articles presented in this special issue provide valuable insights into plant stress responses and offer potential strategies for improving crop resilience under changing environmental conditions.

Header:

Practical Significance Developing resilient crop systems and ensuring sustainable agricultural production are essential for addressing plant growth, development, and crop productivity constraints worldwide.