The Microbially Extended Phenotype of Plants, a Keystone against Abiotic Stress

Abiotic Stress in Plants

Living on the same planet, plants means a lot to us. No matter being taken, as our food or treated with great commercial significance, plants are so indispensable that we have to learn how to protect, make use of, and most important of all, get on well with them. In the first place, what we all understand is: plants are distinguished from us or other animals by being unable to escape from the s...

Abiotic Stress in Plants – Mechanisms

Abiotic Stress Signaling and Responses in Plants

As sessile organisms, plants must cope with abiotic stress such as soil salinity, drought, and extreme temperatures. Core stress-signaling pathways involve protein kinases related to the yeast SNF1 and mammalian AMPK, suggesting that stress signaling in plants evolved from energy sensing. Stress signaling regulates proteins critical for ion and water transport and for metabolic and gene-express...

Rhizosphere bacteria help plants tolerate abiotic stress.

Plant-growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are associated with plant roots and augment plant productivity and immunity; however, recent work by several groups shows that PGPR also elicit so-called 'induced systemic tolerance' to salt and drought. As we discuss here, PGPR might also increase nutrient uptake from soils, thus reducing the need for fertilizers and preventing the accumulation of ni...

Thermodynamics of Abiotic Stress and Stress Tolerance of Cultivated Plants

Plants, as living systems, depend simultaneously on their internal status and their surroundings. Changes in plants’ surroundings, generated by different environmen‐ tal factors (abiotic stress), could perturb existing homeostasis, thus imposing stress. Abiotic stress includes heat, cold, freezing, flooding, drought (refers to water deficit), weak or strong light, oxygen deficiency or sufficien...