Root and Shoot Developmental Plasticity in Response to Stress

Developmental plasticity is a key property that enables plants to adapt to unpredictable external environments. Under stresses such as salinity, drought, nutrient deficiency, and flooding, both root and shoot architectures undergo significant developmental changes. However, the molecular cascades underlying stress-induced developmental plasticity in root and shoot architecture remain poorly understood.

Changes in root architecture include alterations in primary root growth, root meristem activity, lateral root number, root angle, root hair proliferation, and the formation of adventitious roots. At the shoot level, changes include altered branching patterns, leaf morphology, stem elongation, and shifts in reproductive timing. These architectural modifications are not independent events; rather, they are the outcome of systemic phytohormonal crosstalk, the influence of small molecular regulators such as miRNAs and peptide signals, and other molecular cascades triggered by environmental stimuli.

The molecular framework linking the stress response to changes in organ development still remains elusive. Moreover, translating insights from model systems into tangible improvements in crop resilience represents a persistent bottleneck for food security research. This Research Topic directly addresses both challenges.

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, reviews, and mini-reviews that advance our understanding of root and shoot developmental plasticity under different stress responses. Specifically, we aim to bring together studies that uncover the molecular players regulating stress-mediated changes in root architecture—including the Root Apical Meristem (RAM), lateral root formation, root hair development, adventitious rooting, and root angle modification—and that examine how shoots respond to stress through changes in branching, leaf shape, Shoot Apical Meristem (SAM) size, stem growth, and reproductive timing. We further invite contributions that dissect how plant hormones and their crosstalk shape developmental flexibility, that clarify the roles of small molecular regulators such as miRNAs and peptide signals in mediating stress-responsive plasticity, and that translate mechanistic insights from model systems into actionable strategies for enhancing crop resilience and food security.

This Research Topic invites original research articles, systematic reviews, mini-reviews, and perspective/hypothesis pieces that advance our understanding of the molecular, cellular, and systems-level control of root and shoot developmental plasticity under stress conditions. Topics of particular interest include:

• Transcriptional reprogramming and chromatin remodeling underpinning plastic responses in meristematic tissues.
• Hormone biosynthesis, transport, and signaling (auxin, cytokinin, ABA, ethylene, strigolactones, brassinosteroids) in stress-driven architectural changes.
• Post-transcriptional regulation: small RNAs, long non-coding RNAs, and alternative splicing in developmental adaptation.
• Receptor kinase pathways linking stress perception to cell division and elongation in root and shoot apical meristems.
• Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and calcium signaling as second messengers in meristem plasticity.
• Functional characterization of candidate genes and pathways for enhancing root and shoot architecture in cereals, legumes, and vegetables.
• Genome editing (CRISPR/Cas9, base editing, prime editing) approaches targeting developmental plasticity regulators.
• High-throughput phenotyping platforms for root and shoot traits under field-relevant stress conditions.
• Evolutionary conservation and divergence of plasticity mechanisms across monocots and dicots.

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Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review

Keywords: Developmental plasticity, root architecture, shoot branching, apical meristem, abiotic stress, drought tolerance, heat stress, salinity stress, nutrient deficiency, auxin, GA, cytokinin, ABA, strigolactones, brassinosteroid, transcriptional reprogramming

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.