Molecular and Physiological Responses to Water-Deficit Stress

Abstract

Soil-water-deficit stress causes many changes in the biology of the plant cell beginning with the perception of the stress followed by changes that promote the acclimation to the stress. The mechanism by which plant cells transduce the physical stress of loss of water to biochemical changes in the cell continues to elude plant biologists. Using modern techniques that allow measurements of thousands of changes in gene expression at one time, researchers have catalogued and are beginning to make progress in interpreting the function of the many changes in gene expression. Although, it still remains a challenge to understand the function and relevance of many of these responses. There are indications that laboratory stress conditions intended to mimic plant water-deficit stress do not cause a universal water stress response; only a small number of genes are commonly induced when plants are subjected to water-deficit stress in different laboratories. Researchers remain optimistic that lessons learned from the molecular response of Arabidopsis plants to stress can be used to improve crops for growth under non ideal field conditions and lessen the need for irrigation in areas of the world where water availabilty for agriculture is decreasing