This article reviews the contribution made by functional electron microscopy towards identifying and understanding the reactions of plant roots and shoots to anaerobic stress. Topics examined include: (1) unexpected hypersensitivity, rather than hyper-resistance, to anoxia of root tips of flooding-tolerant plants; (2) protective, rather than damaging, effects of a stimulated energy metabolism (glycolysis and fermentation) under anaerobic conditions; (3) the concept of two main strategies of plant adaptation to anaerobic environments, namely avoidance of anaerobiosis on the whole plant level, termed 'apparent' tolerance, and metabolic adaptation at the cellular and molecular levels, termed 'true' tolerance; (4) the importance of protein synthesis during hypoxia and anoxia for enhanced energy production and metabolic adaptation; (5) a general adaptive syndrome in plants to stress at the ultrastructural level and a possible molecular mechanism for its realization under anoxia; (6) the physiological role of anaerobically synthesized lipids and nitrate as alternative electron acceptors in an oxygen-free medium; and (7) the selection of cell lines derived from callus cultures that possess enhanced tolerance to anoxia and can regenerate whole plants with improved tolerance of soil waterlogging.

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