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Plants are sessile beings, so the lack of mechanisms to escape from adverse conditions has fostered, through evolution, the development of unique and sophisticated responses to environmental stress. Depending on the degree of plasticity that a plant possesses to deal with a new environmental situation, in response to abiotic stress, morphological, anatomical, and physiological changes may occur. These changes can affect plant growth, productivity in agriculture, metabolic profi le, and plant nutritional potential, for example. Therefore, plant abiotic stress has been a matter of concern for the maintenance of human life on earth and especially for the world economy. To meet these challenges, genes, transcripts, proteins, and metabolites that control the architecture and/or stress resistance of crop plants in a wide range of environments will need to be identifi ed, in order to facilitate the biotechnological improvement of crop productivity. The combination of different "omics" tools, which rather than investigating a limited number of substances, enable the large-scale scanning of various substances, offers great potential for postgenomics to elucidate the genotype-phenotype relationships. This chapter is intended to be a synopsis of current knowledge on this regard. It focuses on plant proteome and metabolome affected by abiotic factors. It will include informations on recent advances in methods of omics like proteomics and metabolomics, which should be considered as a new opportunity to understand abiotic responses and identify genes responsible for important crop traits.

ABSTRACT

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We investigated the influence of light quality on in vitro germination and protocorm formation, and the effect of indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) and thidiazuron (TDZ) on proliferation of protocorm-like bodies (PLBs) and development of plantlets of Cyrtopodium glutiniferum Raddi. Germination was faster under white and blue light, and highest under green light. The protocorm developed more rapidly under white, blue, and green light. Continuous darkness delayed seed germination and reduced protocorm formation. Among the plant growth regulators (PGRs) tested for multiplying PLBs, shoots, and roots from protocorms, IAA proved to be superior. TDZ was effective in inducing PLB fresh weight accumulation, but not morphogenesis, unlike IAA. This study indicated that C. glutiniferum seedlings can be produced in vitro using asymbiotic seed germination techniques. High germination rate and protocorm yield can be obtained by initially cultivating C. glutiniferum seeds on medium without growth regulators under white light, or under white light supplemented with green or blue light. This culture system complies with commercial and conservation requirements for rapid and low-cost propagation.