Plants have been living on earth for over 350 million years, and they have adapted to the environment and can grow in different conditions. Plant stress refers to external conditions that adversely affect plant growth, development, or productivity. Many external factors can cause plant stress, such as temperature, lighting, water availability, and nutritional content. The plant’s response to stress is called acclimation. Plants can adapt or acclimate to their environment by changing their growth or development. Plant stress is a plant’s response to external conditions that adversely affect growth, development, or productivity. Many factors, such as drought, flooding, and heavy metals, can cause stress. There are two types of stress: abiotic and biotic. Abiotic stresses are environmental factors unrelated to living things, like temperature fluctuations, water availability, and osmotic stress.
Control the Stress Before it Controls You
Abiotic Stresses in Plants
Lipid Metabolism
Plant tissues are made up of cells, and these cells are surrounded by a cell wall, which is made up of cellulose and other polysaccharides. Cellulose is a long-chain carbohydrate that is found in plant cell walls. Plant cells have plasma membranes, permeable to small molecules like water and oxygen but not to larger molecules like proteins. The plasma membrane helps transport substances across the cell wall into the plant tissue. The plasma membrane also regulates what enters and leaves the cell, controlling how much water gets into or out of the plant tissue. The lipid bilayer is a double layer of fat molecules that forms a barrier between the inside and outside of a plant cell. Lipids help regulate what enters or leaves a plant cell by controlling how much water gets in or out of it and regulating how nutrients enter the plant tissue. Lipids are a diverse group of naturally occurring molecules, including fatty acids, glycerides, phospholipids, and others. They are an important part of the cell membrane and serve as a storage form for energy.
Source: Hou, 2016
Figure 1. Signaling lipids are molecules that control the function of cells and organs, and they are important for cellular communication and play a crucial role in many cellular processes. Phosphatidic acid (PA) is the most common signaling lipid is PA because it is used in the cell to regulate membrane trafficking, which is essential for a variety of cellular functions such as exocytosis and endocytosis. Other signaling lipids include phosphoinositides, sphingolipids, and lysophospholipids.
Phosphatidic acid is an important precursor for the biosynthesis of complex lipids, and it is also a key regulator of plant growth and development. Phosphatidic acid is a diacyl glycerophospholipid and serves as a precursor for the biosynthesis of complex lipids, and it is also a key regulator in plant growth and development. PA regulates various aspects of plant physiology, such as seed germination, seedling growth, flowering, leaf senescence, and fruit ripening.
Phosphoinositides are a class of cellular signaling lipids derived from phosphatidylinositol (PtdIns) by the action of phosphoinositide kinases. They are implicated in biological processes, including signal transduction, cell migration, and regulation of the actin cytoskeleton. Phosphatidylinositol is a phospholipid found in all cells, and it comprises two fatty acid tails and four phosphate groups attached to the glycerophosphate backbone at the sn-2 position.
Plants can grow in many environments but are not immune to environmental stress. When plants are under hypoxia stress, their membrane lipids change drastically. In plants, membrane lipids play an important role in regulating cellular homeostasis and signaling. A recent study found that their membrane lipids changed drastically when plants were under hypoxia stress. For example, membranes from plants that were under hypoxia stress had increased levels of phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine (PC/PE), decreased levels of phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG), and decreased ratios of PC/PE to PG. There is also evidence that increased levels of free cholesterol and free fatty acids are seen in plants under hypoxia. Research suggests that the observed changes in membrane lipids may have been caused by a decrease in the activity of NADPH oxidase, which regulates PC/PE synthesis. This would increase PC/PE levels without any effect on PS or PG synthesis, which would alter the ratio of PC/PE to PG.
Further Reading
Blancaflor, E. B., Kilaru, A., Keereetaweep, J., Khan, B. R., Faure, L., & Chapman, K. D. (2014). n-acylethanolamines: Lipid metabolites with functions in plant growth and development. The Plant Journal, 79(4), 568–583. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.12427
Darwish, E., Testerink, C., Khalil, M., El-Shihy, O., & Munnik, T. (2009). Phospholipid signaling responses in salt-stressed rice leaves. Plant and Cell Physiology, 50(5), 986–997. https://doi.org/10.1093/pcp/pcp051
Durand, T., Bultel‐Poncé, V., Guy, A., Berger, S., Mueller, M. J., & Galano, J. M. (2009). New bioactive oxylipins formed by non‐enzymatic free‐radical‐catalyzed pathways: The phytoprostanes. Lipids, 44(10), 875. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-009-3351-1
Finka, A., Cuendet, A. F., Maathuis, F. J. M., Saidi, Y., & Goloubinoff, P. (2012). Plasma membrane cyclic nucleotide gated calcium channels control land plant thermal sensing and acquired Thermotolerance. The Plant Cell, 24(8), 3333–3348. https://doi.org/10.1105/tpc.112.095844
Hou, Q., Ufer, G., & Bartels, D. (2016). Lipid signalling in plant responses to abiotic stress. Plant, Cell & Environment, 39(5), 1029–1048. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.12666
Lichtenthaler, H. K. (1996). Vegetation stress: An introduction to the stress concept in plants. Journal of Plant Physiology, 148(1-2), 4–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0176-1617(96)80287-2
Paes de Melo, B., Carpinetti, P. de, Fraga, O. T., Rodrigues-Silva, P. L., Fioresi, V. S., de Camargos, L. F., & Ferreira, M. F. (2022). Abiotic stresses in plants and their markers: A practice view of plant stress responses and programmed cell death mechanisms. Plants, 11(9), 1100. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11091100
Rani, S., Kumar, P., & Suneja, P. (2021). Biotechnological interventions for inducing abiotic stress tolerance in crops. Plant Gene, 27, 100315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plgene.2021.100315
Spicher, L., Glauser, G., & Kessler, F. (2016). Lipid antioxidant and galactolipid remodeling under temperature stress in Tomato Plants. Frontiers in Plant Science, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2016.00167
Xu, L., Pan, R., & Zhang, W. (2020). Membrane lipids are involved in plant response to oxygen deprivation. Plant Signaling & Behavior, 15(7), 1771938. https://doi.org/10.1080/15592324.2020.1771938
Younis, A., Ramzan, F., Ramzan, Y., Zulfiqar, F., Ahsan, M., & Lim, K. B. (2020). Molecular markers improve abiotic stress tolerance in crops: A Review. Plants, 9(10), 1374. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants9101374
