Plants, like other living organisms, require oxygen and water supplies for sustaining their normal growth and development. The water requirement is generally met through a coordinated system of root-to-shoot communication. However, excessive soil moisture in the rhizosphere can impact normal functioning of plants by restricting oxygen supplies to the roots. To survive under hypoxic conditions, plants show cellular, molecular, and functional level adaptations. One temporary response could be switching to anaerobic respiration, and maintain energy production to some extent, via glycolysis and ethanol fermentation. However, root respiration, water, and nutrient uptake, and hormonal synthesis are severely impacted under sustained periods of oxygen deficiency. These belowground changes, in turn, affect shoot performance and yield formation by interfering with the key physiological processes.
In the context of global warming, exemplified by erratic heavy-rainfall events, irrigated crops are subjected to extended periods of soils waterlogging. It is critical to understand the mechanisms through which plants sense and adapt to the waterlogged environment. Rapid depletion of oxygen in the waterlogged soils unbalances soil chemistry and consequently plant energy and hormone metabolism. This triggers the downstream physiological and biochemical changes in plants. Large-scale genomic and proteomic approaches have improved our understanding of the basic adaptive mechanisms of plants to oxygen deficiency, the full array of responses that can confer waterlogging tolerance remain elusive. With this research topic, we aim to gather up-to-date information on the metabolic, physiological, and morphological responses and adaptations of plants to soil waterlogging / hypoxia.
We welcome Original Research, Review and Methods articles falling under (but not limited to) the following categories:
• Quantification of the impact of soil waterlogging, and anoxia on plants under current and projected future environments.
• Unravelling the key mechanisms through which plants sense and signal oxygen deficiency and respond to an impairment of their energy metabolism.
• Adaptation of plants to oxygen-deficient environments: anatomical, physiological, biochemical, molecular level responses.
• Identification and genetic dissection of the quantitative traits regulating these adaptive responses and application of genomics-based approaches to breed crops with superior waterlogging/hypoxia tolerance.
• Application of emerging technologies that may represent good opportunities for increasing tolerance to hypoxia.
Please note that descriptive studies and those defining gene families or descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide mechanistic and/or physiological insights into the biological system or process being studied.
Plants, like other living organisms, require oxygen and water supplies for sustaining their normal growth and development. The water requirement is generally met through a coordinated system of root-to-shoot communication. However, excessive soil moisture in the rhizosphere can impact normal functioning of plants by restricting oxygen supplies to the roots. To survive under hypoxic conditions, plants show cellular, molecular, and functional level adaptations. One temporary response could be switching to anaerobic respiration, and maintain energy production to some extent, via glycolysis and ethanol fermentation. However, root respiration, water, and nutrient uptake, and hormonal synthesis are severely impacted under sustained periods of oxygen deficiency. These belowground changes, in turn, affect shoot performance and yield formation by interfering with the key physiological processes.
In the context of global warming, exemplified by erratic heavy-rainfall events, irrigated crops are subjected to extended periods of soils waterlogging. It is critical to understand the mechanisms through which plants sense and adapt to the waterlogged environment. Rapid depletion of oxygen in the waterlogged soils unbalances soil chemistry and consequently plant energy and hormone metabolism. This triggers the downstream physiological and biochemical changes in plants. Large-scale genomic and proteomic approaches have improved our understanding of the basic adaptive mechanisms of plants to oxygen deficiency, the full array of responses that can confer waterlogging tolerance remain elusive. With this research topic, we aim to gather up-to-date information on the metabolic, physiological, and morphological responses and adaptations of plants to soil waterlogging / hypoxia.
We welcome Original Research, Review and Methods articles falling under (but not limited to) the following categories:
• Quantification of the impact of soil waterlogging, and anoxia on plants under current and projected future environments.
• Unravelling the key mechanisms through which plants sense and signal oxygen deficiency and respond to an impairment of their energy metabolism.
• Adaptation of plants to oxygen-deficient environments: anatomical, physiological, biochemical, molecular level responses.
• Identification and genetic dissection of the quantitative traits regulating these adaptive responses and application of genomics-based approaches to breed crops with superior waterlogging/hypoxia tolerance.
• Application of emerging technologies that may represent good opportunities for increasing tolerance to hypoxia.
Please note that descriptive studies and those defining gene families or descriptive collection of transcripts, proteins, or metabolites, will not be considered for review unless they are expanded and provide mechanistic and/or physiological insights into the biological system or process being studied.
