Seed storage proteins are arguably one of the most important sources of protein for humans and their abundance saw them become the subject of many early studies in plant protein biochemistry. This paper provides an overview of the post-translational processing and three-dimensional structures of the napin-type albumins. Despite decades of excellent research on storage proteins, questions remain to be answered.

It has been suggested that mixed forests may be more productive than mono-specific forests, but not much is known about belowground (root) production. With an ingrowth core study in 100 plots in an old-growth forest, we show that species identity is important, whereas species diversity per se influenced only fine root turnover but not fine root production.

The increasing climatic variability results in wheat being exposed to more frequent adversities including combined low temperature and drought/waterlogging. The physiological, proteomic and transcriptional responses of wheat plants to these combined stresses were reported. The knowledge will help comprehensively understand the climate change impacts on wheat production and help optimise water management strategy to cope with the abiotic stresses.

It is well known that drought is an environmental stress that negatively affects peanut growth and nodulation; however, plant recovery analyses are scarce. This study establishes a framework for analysing the response of biological nitrogen fixation and antioxidant systems in a drought–recovery cycle. Efficient and dynamic regulation of antioxidant enzymes during the cycle is crucial for the restoration of normal redox metabolism within 3 days after onset of rehydration.

Major losses in soybean production are reported annually due to the attack of the soybean cyst nematode. Soybean roots were transformed to modify the expression of two genes involved in the defence mechanism of plants against pathogens, and their response to nematode attack was studied. The treatments conferred enhanced resistance to the cyst nematode, providing an interesting strategy to improve crop protection against pathogens.

Designing an effective phenotyping strategy requires thorough understanding of plant survival under salt stress. This study aimed at characterising rice cultivars differing in salinity tolerance based on changes in chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics, growth parameters and ion accumulation. Salinity factor index calculated from PI_ABS clearly distinguished tolerance level among the cultivars. Some new salt-tolerant cultivars were identified, which could serve as donors in breeding programme and for identification of additional QTL/genes.

The mechanism of drought tolerance may be related to a photoprotective feature in cotton plants. Mehler-peroxidation reaction, photorespiration and nitrate metabolism serve as efficient alternative sinks for excess electrons to maintain electron transport flux. They are important photoprotective mechanisms in field-grown cotton to cope with drought.

Cotton genotypes resistant to debilitating spider mite infestations could be used to breed mite resistant commercial cultivars and reduce yield loss and pesticide use. We found that jasmonic acid was present at higher levels in the resistant genotype. Jasmonic acid represents a possible selection tool to dramatically speed up breeding of mite resistant cotton cultivars.

ERF transcription factors are implicated in a range of biological processes. However, molecular functions of most pepper ERFs remain uncharacterised. We have shown that overexpression of a pepper CaERF5 gene in tobacco enhances resistance to a bacterial disease, likely by activation of defence genes. Our results suggest that CaERF5 acts as a positive regulator in plant defence, and that overexpression of CaERF5 can be used to enhance disease resistance in crop species.

The function of AtDHyPRP1 in defence response of Arabidopsis to bacterial and fungal pathogens was determined with overexpressing and RNA interference lines. AtDHyPRP1 was localised to plasmalemma and was associated with systemic acquired resistance. As a lipid transfer protein, AtDHyPRP1 is probably involved in perception and translocation of long-distance signals derived from biotic stresses via vascular tissue or plasmodesmata.