Mineral Nutrition and Plant Stress Tolerance

Plants can accumulate essential mineral elements that are used in synthesizing a variety of important organic compounds and play crucial roles in metabolic pathways. Mineral elements are mainly derived from the soil in inorganic form. In soil, more than 60 mineral elements are present, but only macronutrients, micronutrients, and beneficial elements (e.g., cobalt, selenium, nickel, and silicon) are taken up by plants. Plant research has previously focused on essential plant nutrients (EPNs). But now we see that nutrients other than EPNs are also playing a vital role in plant adaptation, growth, and development. Furthermore, the interaction of non-essential elements with EPNs triggers plant stress tolerance, gaining attention as an important area of plant research. Abiotic and biotic stresses and their combinations influence many aspects of crop physiology and plant biochemistry. Therefore, understanding crops' physiological and biochemical responses to adverse environmental conditions is critical. While significant strides have been made in the domain of plant nutrition and stress tolerance, many aspects still remain unknown.

Different mineral elements promote plant growth, development, photosynthesis, and other physiological and biochemical processes under abiotic and/or biotic stress conditions. The functional role of mineral elements and their interaction mediating changes in plants under stress need to be scrutinized clearly. Understanding the role of mineral nutrients in crop stress responses and stress-responsive pathways to divergence of stresses will clarify the underlying physiological mechanisms. Mineral elements also have widespread use in genetic engineering, biotechnology, plant tissue culture, and agriculture. This Research Topic intends to assess the existing status of knowledge with respect to mineral nutrition in plant stress tolerance and to recognize gaps in the current knowledge.

This research topic welcomes authors to submit original research, reviews/mini-reviews, and perspective articles covering any of the following aspects:

-Role of mineral nutrients to cope with adverse effects of different biotic and abiotic stresses
-Nutrient management strategies toward the improvement of crop performance under stresses
-Nutrient use efficiency under divergence of stresses
-Interactions between/among mineral elements under stresses
-Stress responses linked to nutrient deficiency and toxicity
-The acquisition and utilization of different mineral nutrients in plants under stresses
-Mineral nutrition-based transcriptomics, metabolomics, ionomics, and proteomics approaches to plant stress tolerance
-Molecular characterization studies comprising different stress-responsive genes due to mineral supplementation
-Influence of mineral nutrients in different genetic and epigenetic regulations of plants under stresses

PLEASE NOTE: Descriptive studies that report responses of growth, yield, or quality to agronomical treatments will not be considered if they do not progress physiological understanding of these responses.