Trees heavily rely on water stored inside their stems during water shortage. This study addressed the stem water storage patterns of the mangrove Avicennia marina and discovered that the tree’s sugar transport system stored water during the daytime, a little observed phenomenon. The authors suggest this unusual adaptation could have a role in helping A. marina thrive in salty environments.

Salt stress has started threatening regional development and could continue to threaten agricultural production and food security. The mitigation mechanism of Ca²⁺ of foxtail millet to salt stress is not only related to the yield and the patterns of saline-alkaline land utilisation but is also related to the food security of human beings. We examined the effects of different Ca²⁺ concentrations on foxtail millet growth, physiology, ion balance and gene expression under salt stress induced with 1.0% w/v NaCl, and found the optimal Ca²⁺ concentration to improve salt tolerance. This study provides theoretical and technical support for the cultivation of foxtail millet and the utilisation of salinised land with saline-alkaline soil.

Tree peony, known as the king of flowers, can be improved and bred by interspecific hybridisation. To elucidate the molecular mechanisms of the cross-incompatibility between tree peony and herbaceous peony, six differentially expressed proteins containing enolase, DnaK, GroEL, calmodulin, adenine nucleotide translocator and glyoxalase I were found by isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation-based quantitative proteomic analysis. These results should facilitate interspecific hybridisation in agricultural practice.

A type of programmed cell death in grape berries occurs late in ripening influencing yield via berry shrinkage, and ultimately affecting wine quality. A gene transcript (VvBAP1) linked to cell death in the grape berry has been discovered that also confers ROS and drought tolerance to Arabidopsis when overexpressed. This discovery will allow future research to uncover the downstream regulators of berry cell death that occurs only in some cultivars of grapevine.

UV-B seed priming is a means of inducing abiotic stress tolerance in a cost-effective manner with appropriate and essential expenditure of energy towards stress tolerance. This priming method effectively influence various physio-chemical features in the rice seedlings under different stress conditions and brings about more positive stress tolerance features for NaCl stress than for PEG and UV-B stress.

Is mesophyll involved in stomatal responses to environmental stimuli? The mesophyll segments of Commelina communis pretreated in the light at low CO₂ air were more effective to induce stomatal opening in the epidermal strips transplanted from the plants kept in the dark than those pretreated in the dark and/or high CO₂. Our results indicate the involvement of mesophyll in stomatal responses.

Cold stress leads to major crop losses in many parts of the world, so identifying key genes of agronomic importance could provide a sustainable solution to this problem. We have identified the key role of a rice gene (OsRBGD3) attributed to cold tolerance, root elongation and early flowering. Use of this gene will provide agricultural industry an opportunity for breeding future frost-resistant and early flowering crops.