Advancing Plant Abiotic Stress Research with Integrated Multi-Omics Technologies

Abiotic stresses such as heat, drought, salinity, and intense light significantly impact plant productivity in varying environments. Traditionally, the molecular responses to these stresses have been dissected through various individual and combined stress conditions using transcriptomic, metabolomic, and proteomic analyses. This comprehensive exploration has led to the identification of critical components involved in abiotic stress responses at different molecular levels. With the increasing availability of diverse datasets from various plant species and tissues under different stress conditions, the challenge now lies in effectively analyzing this wealth of information.

The journey of functional characterization of genes related to abiotic stress responses has evolved remarkably over the years. Initially, the focus was primarily on gene and protein expression analyses, which progressed with advancements in gene manipulation and transgenic technologies. Further acceleration was witnessed with the advent of genome sequencing techniques. Currently, there is a pressing need for integrated multi-omics data to be analyzed using advanced tools. These tools will help clarify the roles of specific genes and identify essential factors linked to abiotic stress responses across different plant species.

This Research Topic aims to showcase studies that use multi-omics approaches for the functional characterization of plant abiotic stress response factors, with a focus on plant crops. To deepen our understanding of plant responses to abiotic stressors, we invite contributions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Genome-wide identification and functional analysis of gene families involved in abiotic stress responses.
• Functional genomic analysis using transcriptome and proteome data to study abiotic stress-responsive genes.
• In silico analysis of gene promoters and characterization of stress-responsive elements.
• Identification and characterization of metabolic factors and pathway genes in plant abiotic stress responses.
• Functional characterization of abiotic stress-responsive genes using gene editing technologies.

Keywords: Plant Abiotic Stress Response, Multi-Omics in Plant Science, Functional Genomics in Plants, Plant Stress Transcriptomics, Proteomics in Abiotic Stress, Gene Editing for Stress Tolerance, Metabolomics of Stress Response, Plant Genomic Stress Analysis

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.