Maintaining the CO₂ absorption at light exposure under water restriction is the main challenge of leaf functioning. For this reason, it is important to understand the bottlenecks along the CO₂ path from atmosphere to chloroplast. By studying Rodospatha oblongata Poepp., an aroid vine, we were able to correlate the increase in photosynthetic activity with the expansion of intercellular spaces, which can potentially modulate the interaction between mesophyll resistance and stomatal resistance.

Plants can sense and memorise changes in their environment, which allows them to control their life cycle. Plants have sensory, short-term and long-term memory. Possible candidates for memory devices in plants are memristors. Here, we found that electrostimulation of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula Ellis) by unipolar sinusoidal or triangular periodic electrical trains induces electrical responses in plants with fingerprints of volatile memristors. The discovery of volatile generic memristors in plants opens new directions in the modelling and understanding of electrical phenomena in the plant kingdom.

Plants employ several defence mechanisms to cope with high salt accumulation in soil. The present work demonstrates modulation of aquaporin expression and sodium and potassium ion (Na⁺ and K⁺) accumulation by nitric oxide in sunflower seedling roots under salt stress. This work also suggests a correlation between AQP expression and ions (Na⁺ and K⁺) homeostasis in response to salt stress and NO.

Costus pictus D. Don is an important medicinal plant with a key bioactive compound known as corosolic acid, which is used in the treatment of diabetes. Tropospheric ozone pollution is very high in Indo-Gangetic Plain of India and its effect on C. pictus is still unexplored. Corosolic acid content was found to be increased at later stages of growth under elevated ozone.

Germination and drought tolerance of plants can be improved by pre-germination treatment (seed priming). However, a negative effect on the longevity of the primed seed is observed and we have shown that proteins oxidation, and particularly carbonylation, is a marker of the primed seed ageing. So better knowledge of seed ageing will allow a longer conservation of primed seeds.

During maturation, lignin content gradually increased in tobacco leaves, reaching a peak at full maturity, and then gradually decreasing. NtPAL, NtC4H, NtCCoAOMT and NtCOMT may play key roles in the lignin synthesis. Most lignin synthesis-related genes were all expressed in stems, roots, and leaves. NtC3H and NtF5H were specifically expressed in stalks and roots, and not in leaves. Consistently, the NtC3H promoter induced high GUS expression in stems and petioles, marginal in roots, and no GUS activity in leaves.

Plants are exposed to severe temperature stress during extreme weather events, which can reduce their ability to photosynthesise and can cause damage to leaf tissue. Measuring these critical limits for leaf photosynthesis requires that we can make efficient and robust measurements, while understanding how experimental conditions can affect results. We demonstrate a method to measure leaves quickly, but also show that the rate of temperature change during measurement affects species differently and needs to be considered carefully.