Biochemical and Physiological Insights into Plant Adaptation and Resilience Under Abiotic Stresses

In the field of botany and environmental studies, understanding plant responses to abiotic stresses such as drought, salinity, and extreme temperatures is crucial for agricultural sustainability and ecosystem management. While studies have explored plant reactions to multiple stressors concurrently, our understanding of how plants adapt to individual stress factors remains incomplete. It is essential to prioritize a deeper understanding of plant responses to single stressors before addressing the complexities of combined stress scenarios.

This Research Topic aims to deepen our understanding of the distinct biochemical, physiological, and metabolic processes that plants utilize in response to individual abiotic stress factors. By identifying and characterizing these specific adaptation mechanisms, we can better understand the trade-offs between stress resistance and plant growth, which is vital for developing strategies to enhance crop productivity and resilience in changing climatic conditions.

Most studies have focused on the effects of individual stressors, as scientists typically manipulate one variable at a time to isolate specific stress responses. While this approach has provided valuable insights, our understanding of stress responses—both for individual and combined stresses—remains incomplete.

To effectively address this Research Topic, the focus will be on the individual responses of plants to unique environmental stressors, without the confounding effects of multiple simultaneous challenges. Contributions that explore, but are not limited to, the following themes are welcome:

- Physiological and biochemical reactions unique to individual abiotic stresses
- Metabolic adaptation and resource distribution under specific stress conditions
- Hormonal signaling and transcriptional control in response to isolated stresses
- Antioxidant defense and ion balance during single stress events
- Effects of singular abiotic stresses on plant development, growth, and yield
- Molecular and regulatory pathways that govern stress-specific responses
- Comparative studies on stress-specific and general stress responses

We also invite submissions of original research, methods, reviews, meta-analyses, and opinion pieces focused on these areas.

Disclaimer: Studies must contribute novel physiological insights rather than descriptive data alone. Purely descriptive studies that do not advance our mechanistic understanding of stress responses will not be considered.

Keywords: abiotic stress, plant adaptation mechanisms, physiological and biochemical responses, hormonal signaling, crop resilience

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.