Drought stress negatively influences plant growth, survival and productivity. Here, we found that RNAi silencing of the WYZ2 gene could decrease the drought tolerance of transgenic wheat while overexpression of WZY2 in transgenic Arabidopsis significantly increased its tolerance to drought stress. Our work suggests that WZY2 may act on the stress-resistance of a plant through influencing synergistic/antagonistic cross-talk among various stress signalling pathways.

Abiotic stresses negatively affect the growth and productivity of crop plants around the world. We report here the functional characterisation of TdAnn12 in transgenic tobacco and its involvement in salt and drought stress tolerance through the removal of reactive oxygen species. These results show that TdAnn12 could be a useful candidate gene for engineering abiotic stress tolerance in cultivated plants.

In this work we investigated the responses of Medicago sativa seedlings to different levels of UV-B light. Seedlings grew better under lower levels of UV-B light (UV-B irradiation dosage <17.35 μW cm^–2 day^–1) and have higher UV-resistance. However, higher levels of UV-B light (UV-B irradiation dosage >17.35μW cm^–2 day^–1) caused severe stress injuries to seedlings, and seriously inhibited growth and development. Further tests have suggested that the significant induction of plant antioxidant capacity and flavonoid excessive accumulation play a central role in alfalfa UV-B tolerance to the lower levels of UV-B irradiation.

Karst habitats cover extensive areas of south-west China; however, we know little about the adaptive mechanisms of plants there. We compared leaf functional traits between a karst forest and a nearby non-karst forest and found that karst trees had more conservative water use and higher leaf P concentrations. Our results show that trees in the karst forest are structurally and physiologically acclimated to the dry, nutrient-rich soil.

After more than a decade, the role of H₂S has changed from a hazardous substance into a beneficial gasotransmitter. In the present study we show that light, an indispensable factor for plant growth, provokes H₂S generation by regulating H₂S-producing enzyme coding genes and enzymatic activity. This research provides meaningful connection for environmental signal light and endogenous signal H₂S, both of which are important in regulating various plant physiology processes.

It has not yet been determined how plants sense extremely high temperature in the growth environment. Here we propose that a common chaperone HSP70 can be a heat sensor of plants. The inhibition of HSP70 by a specific inhibitor VER-155008 efficiently induced the heat shock response and enhanced the heat tolerance of Arabidopsis.

Bioindicators of marine pollution enable fast and reliable monitoring of environmental conditions over time. In this work, we analysed timely warning symptoms of pollution in the marine phanerogam Posidonia oceanica, correlating the physiological response of plants from different meadows to the content of leaf heavy metals. Our results suggest that prolonged exposures to high heavy metal concentrations may interfere with the plants’ defence mechanisms.

This report demonstrates the influence of oxidovanadium(IV) complexes on Arabidopsis thaliana. In the presence of vanadium(IV) complexes, plants proceeded through their entire life cycle, with proper morphological and cytological organisation of leaf and root tissues. H₂O₂ treatment caused damage and death to plants. Plants pretreated with 10⁻⁶ M vanadium(IV) complexes survived longer in the presence of H₂O₂, suggesting some role of conjugated vanadium(IV) in response to stress factors.