Influence of Biotic and Abiotic Stresses Signals on Plants and their Performance at Different Environments

Submission Deadline: 30 September 2025 View: 106 Submit to Special Issue

Guest Editors

Valentina Spanic, Agricultural Institute Osijek, Juzno predgradje 17, Osijek 31000, CROATIA

Summary

Biotic or abiotic stress is any adverse situation that affects plants at a physiological, biochemical, and metabolomics level that could have a negative influence on the optimal growth and development of plants. There are numerous ranges of environmental stresses (high and low temperature, drought, alkalinity, salinity, UV stress, pathogens, insect attacks, etc.) that are potentially harmful to plants. Under stress conditions, the normal metabolism of plants is disturbed resulting in a decrease in growth and productivity when a series of molecular, biochemical, physiological, and morphological changes are triggered. Plant metabolites are often compounds that have an elementary role in the maintenance of life processes. Still, they are also important for the adaptation and defense of plants under biotic and abiotic stresses especially now when climatic changes are more pronounced. The combination of metabolic and physiological changes determines the ability of plants to tolerate adverse environmental situations. Thereby, plants can modify their physiological mechanisms under stress to adapt through metabolic homeostasis.

Different studies showed that metabolic profiling revealed various types of metabolites, e.g., amino acids, carbohydrates, phenols, polyamines, terpenes, etc, which are accumulated in different plant tissues during different stresses. Thus, metabolome analysis has an important role in understanding the basics of stress physiology and biochemistry. It would be interesting to clarify how the production of secondary metabolites can be optimized in plants by exposing them to different kinds of stresses. Also, it is necessary to understand to which extent plants can deal with stresses. Further, we would like to see how physiological and/ or metabolomics studies highlight the role of primary and secondary metabolites and/ or antioxidant systems in stress tolerance, aiding in breeding and crop improvement programs.

Articles on recent advances in plant metabolites and physiology concerning biotic and abiotic stress responses and tolerance mechanisms are welcome. In addition, in this special issue, we also welcome articles related to crop performance under different environments taking into account different traits (agronomical, morphological, or quality traits). We encourage the submission of high-quality original research articles, short communications, reviews, mini-reviews, and perspective papers.

Potential subjects for this topic include, but are not limited to:

· Primary and secondary metabolites under stress

· Physiology of plants under stress

· Plant tolerance to different stresses

· Breeding programs aims and strategies to combat stress

· Extreme stress for plants (drought, diseases, insects etc.)

· Environmental stresses affecting plant performance

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