Genetic and Molecular Mechanisms of Plant Stress Tolerance and Strategies for Improvement: A Comprehensive Review

Advancing Drought and Salinity Stress Tolerance in Plants: Mechanisms, Molecular Tools and Breeding Strategies—A Review

This review comprehensively synthesizes recent advances in abiotic stress perception, signal transduction and hormone‐mediated regulation, highlighting their roles in shaping plant stress tolerance and proposes an integrated multi‐scale framework to provide a holistic understanding of drought and salinity stress tolerance and to guide the development of resilient crop systems.

Physiological, Biochemical, and Molecular Basis of Plant Responses to Drought Stress

The survival of plants in arid environments relies on their intricate responses to drought stress, encompassing physiological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms. In the face of limited water availability, plants exhibit remarkable adaptations to minimize water loss and sustain vital functions. Physiologically, stomatal closure reduces transpirational water loss, while growth reduction and wilting help conserve water. Root growth alterations enable exploration of deeper soil layers for water acquisition. Biochemically, osmotic adjustment through accumulation of compatible solutes maintains cellular turgor pressure. Antioxidant production counteracts reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by water stress. Notably, abscisic acid (ABA) accumulates, orchestrating stress responses including stomatal closure and gene regulation. Molecularly, gene expression changes underlie the activation of stress-responsive genes. Transcription factors like DREB and bZIP modulate gene expression, while ABA-dependent and ABA-independent pathways govern signaling. LEA proteins and chaperones shield cellular structures, and microRNAs fine-tune post-transcriptional regulation. This comprehensive framework underscores the remarkable capacity of plants to adapt to drought stress through an integrated network of physiological, biochemical, and molecular strategies. Understanding these responses holds promise for enhancing crop resilience and agricultural sustainability in water-scarce environments.

Negative regulators that mitigate abiotic stress sensitivity of rice: insights and future perspectives

Molecular Mechanisms and Regulatory Networks of Salt Stress Tolerance in Plant.

Soil salinity is a major threat to crop productivity, sustainable agriculture, and global food security, with more than 833 million hectares of land affected worldwide. Salt stress restricts plant growth through osmotic stress, ion toxicity, oxidative damage, membrane disruption, reduced photosynthesis, and yield loss. Plants respond through coordinated regulatory networks that connect early stress perception with ion balance, osmotic adjustment, hormone signaling, transcript regulation, and protein modification. Recent advances have identified several sensory and signaling modules involved in salinity responses, including calcium signaling, receptor like kinases, FERONIA, OSCA, MOCA, annexins, and mechanosensitive channels that detect ionic, osmotic, and mechanical changes. Established pathways such as the SOS pathway and GABA shunt are included as established background mechanisms for sodium homeostasis and metabolic adjustment under saline conditions. Hormonal networks involving abscisic acid, ethylene, jasmonic acid, auxin, gibberellins, and brassinosteroids coordinate root architecture, stomatal control, antioxidant defense, growth restraint, and post-stress recovery. Emerging regulatory layers mediated by microRNAs, phosphorylation, ubiquitination, and SUMOylation further fine tune transcript stability, protein activity, ion transport, redox balance, and stress resilience. A central challenge is the translational gap between model species and crops, since many mechanisms defined in Arabidopsis and rice still lack functional validation in major crop species and halophytes. Integrating conserved and species dependent mechanisms with crop centered validation will help convert molecular knowledge into breeding, genome editing, and management strategies for saline agriculture.

Auxin signaling networks and hormonal cross-talk in plant responses to biotic stress

Brassinosteroids as Central Regulators of Plant Growth, Stress Tolerance, and Agricultural Resilience

Overall, BRs represent promising targets for improving crop stress resilience; however, optimizing BR-mediated strategies and validating their long-term performance under diverse field conditions will be essential for their successful application in sustainable agriculture.