Abiotic stress responses in plants

• Published in: Nature reviews. Genetics Vol. 23; no. 2; pp. 104 - 119
• Main Authors: Zhang, Huiming, Zhu, Jianhua, Gong, Zhizhong, Zhu, Jian-Kang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 01.02.2022; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/208/2491; 631/208/8; 631/337; 631/449; Abiotic stress; Agriculture; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Atmosphere - chemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cancer Research; Carbon Dioxide - metabolism; Crops; Crops, Agricultural - genetics; Crops, Agricultural - growth & development; Crops, Agricultural - metabolism; Drought; Droughts; Ecosystem; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Gene Function; Human Genetics; Information processing; Molecular modelling; Oxygen - metabolism; Plants - genetics; Plants - metabolism; Post-translation; Review Article; Salinity; Soil - chemistry; Stress, Physiological - genetics; Temperature; Transcription
• ISSN: 1471-0056; 1471-0064; 1471-0064
• DOI: 10.1038/s41576-021-00413-0

Plants cannot move, so they must endure abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity and extreme temperatures. These stressors greatly limit the distribution of plants, alter their growth and development, and reduce crop productivity. Recent progress in our understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the responses of plants to abiotic stresses emphasizes their multilevel nature; multiple processes are involved, including sensing, signalling, transcription, transcript processing, translation and post-translational protein modifications. This improved knowledge can be used to boost crop productivity and agricultural sustainability through genetic, chemical and microbial approaches. In this Review, Zhang et al. summarize our current understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying the responses of plants to abiotic stresses, and how this knowledge can be used to improve crop resilience through genetic, chemical and microbial approaches.