REVIEW article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1637328
This article is part of the Research TopicBiochemical and Physiological Insights into Plant Adaptation and Resilience Under Abiotic StressesView all 7 articles
Reactive Oxygen Species-Post Translational Modifications-Central Carbon Metabolism Regulatory Loop: Coordination of Redox Homeostasis and Carbon Flux Allocation in Plants Under Abiotic Stress
Provisionally accepted
Linfeng Bao1,2Wenya Wang1,2Mengyang Li1,2Jie Liu1,2
Jiahao Liu1,2Gulizhare • Alifu2Desheng Wang1,2Xueqi Liang1,2*
Tingyong Mao1,2*
Yunlong Zhai1,2- 1Key Laboratory of Tarim Oasis Agriculture (Tarim University), Ministry of Education, Alar, China
- 2College of Agriculture, Tarim University, Aral, China
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Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play dual roles in plants as signaling molecules and cytotoxic agents, making ROS homeostasis critical for abiotic stress adaptation. Numerous studies have shown that central carbon metabolism (CCM) provides the energy required for plant growth and maintains ROS homeostasis by coordinating energy distribution and reconfiguring metabolic streams under abiotic stress, providing energy and metabolites for plants to resist adverse conditions. As a crucial mechanism by which cells respond to short-term stress, post-translational modifications (PTMs) influence CCM by targeting and modifying its enzymes. This enables both energy and metabolic flow redistribution, enabling plants to balance growth and defense under stress conditions. In this review, we discuss the ROS–PTM–CCM interaction and how it improves plant adaptation to abiotic stress. We propose that ROS coordinate ROS homeostasis by mediating the feedback regulation of CCM through PTMs under abiotic stress. This review provides a theoretical basis for improving crop stress tolerance through PTM-targeted metabolic engineering.
Keywords: abiotic stress, TCA cycle, Glycolysis, Oxidative pentose pathway, Central carbon metabolism, Reactive oxygen species homeostasis, post-translational modifications
Received: 29 May 2025; Accepted: 19 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Bao, Wang, Li, Liu, Liu, Alifu, Wang, Liang, Mao and Zhai. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Xueqi Liang, College of Agriculture, Tarim University, Aral, China
Tingyong Mao, College of Agriculture, Tarim University, Aral, China
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