Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Crop Plants

Thomas Dresselhaus,Ralph Hückelhoven

doi:10.3390/agronomy8110267

Thomas Dresselhaus, Ralph Hückelhoven

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy8110267

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Journal: Agronomy	Publication Date: Nov 19, 2018
Citations: 122	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Regensburg, Technical University of Munich

Abstract

Agricultural productivity depends on increasingly extreme weather phenomena, and the use of germplasm that has to be continuously improved by plant breeders to become tolerant to various biotic and abiotic stresses. Molecular plant biologists try to understand the mechanisms associated with stress responses and provide knowledge that could be used in breeding programs. To provide a partial overview about our current understanding about molecular and physiological stress responses, and how this knowledge can be used in agriculture, we have edited a special issue on “Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Crop Plants”. Contributions are from different fields including heat stress responses, stress responses during drought and salinity, as well as during flooding, and resistance and susceptibility to pathogenetic stresses and about the role of plant functional metabolites in biotic stress responses. Future research demand in particular areas of crop stress physiology is discussed, as well as the importance of translational research and investigations directly in elite crop plants and in the genetic resources available for breeding.

Highlights

While the demands for crop products continue to increase, agricultural productivity is threatened by various stress factors, often associated with global warming [1,2,3]
As knowledge generated by molecular plant researchers often does not reach plant breeders and decision-makers, we discussed with our colleagues the idea of editing a Special Issue about Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Plants in the journal Agronomy, with the goal of contributing to filling this gap and highlighting this exciting research area
Ranf explains the mechanism of the sensitive detection of these molecules by cell-surface pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) [12]. She reports the great progress in the recent identification of novel PRRs from plants, with most of them being identified in Arabidopsis thaliana

Summary

Introduction

While the demands for crop products continue to increase, agricultural productivity is threatened by various stress factors, often associated with global warming [1,2,3]. As knowledge generated by molecular plant researchers often does not reach plant breeders and decision-makers, we discussed with our colleagues the idea of editing a Special Issue about Biotic and Abiotic Stress Responses in Plants in the journal Agronomy, with the goal of contributing to filling this gap and highlighting this exciting research area This Special Issue, collected contributions from groups of both research consortia, complemented by papers from colleagues worldwide, reporting how crop plant species respond to various abiotic stresses, such as drought, heat, flooding, and salinity, as well as biotic stimuli during microbial infections. These include perspectives on how knowledge from model plants can be utilized to facilitate crop-plant breeding and biotechnology

Biotic Stress Responses and the Role of Secondary Metabolites

Abiotic Stress Responses and the Usage of RNA-seq Methodology

Conclusions