How to Cope with the Challenges of Environmental Stresses in the Era of Global Climate Change: An Update on ROS Stave off in Plants

Abstract

With the advent of human civilization and anthropogenic activities in the shade of urbanization and global climate change, plants are exposed to a complex set of abiotic stresses. These stresses affect plants’ growth, development, and yield and cause enormous crop losses worldwide. In this alarming scenario of global climate conditions, plants respond to such stresses through a highly balanced and finely tuned interaction between signaling molecules. The abiotic stresses initiate the quick release of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as toxic by-products of altered aerobic metabolism during different stress conditions at the cellular level. ROS includes both free oxygen radicals {superoxide (O2•−) and hydroxyl (OH−)} as well as non-radicals [hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and singlet oxygen (1O2)]. ROS can be generated and scavenged in different cell organelles and cytoplasm depending on the type of stimulus. At high concentrations, ROS cause lipid peroxidation, DNA damage, protein oxidation, and necrosis, but at low to moderate concentrations, they play a crucial role as secondary messengers in intracellular signaling cascades. Because of their concentration-dependent dual role, a huge number of molecules tightly control the level of ROS in cells. The plants have evolved antioxidants and scavenging machinery equipped with different enzymes to maintain the equilibrium between the production and detoxification of ROS generated during stress. In this present article, we have focused on current insights on generation and scavenging of ROS during abiotic stresses. Moreover, the article will act as a knowledge base for new and pivotal studies on ROS generation and scavenging.

ZmNAC074, a maize stress-responsive NAC transcription factor, confers heat stress tolerance in transgenic Arabidopsis

“…Consistently, in this study, H 2 O 2 levels and O 2 contents were lower while SOD and CAT activities were higher in transgenic Arabidopsis than WT Arabidopsis under heat stress treatments, indicating that increased SOD and CAT activities resulted from ZmNAC074 overexpression in transgenic Arabidopsis is associated with heat stress tolerance through ROS-mediated stress responsive signaling pathway. Further, APXs and GPXs can protect cells from stressinduced oxidative damage and play a key role in plant development and growth (Bela et al, 2015;Li et al, 2019;Singh et al, 2022). In this study, the significantly up-regulated expression of AtAPX1-8 and AtGPX1-8 in transgenic Arabidopsis suggested that ZmNAC074 may enhance the ability of antioxidants to scavenge excessive ROS by upregulating these antioxidant enzyme genes, thus enhancing the ability to resist heat stress.…”

“…Further, APXs and GPXs can protect cells from stress-induced oxidative damage and play a key role in plant development and growth ( Bela et al., 2015 ; Li et al., 2019 ; Singh et al., 2022 ). In this study, the significantly up-regulated expression of AtAPX1-8 and AtGPX1-8 in transgenic Arabidopsis suggested that ZmNAC074 may enhance the ability of antioxidants to scavenge excessive ROS by up-regulating these antioxidant enzyme genes, thus enhancing the ability to resist heat stress.…”

Assessment of the Impacts of Green Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles on Maerua oblongifolia Shoots under In Vitro Salt Stress

“…Plants naturally increase the production of soluble sugar and proline content in the cytosol and other organelles to cope with the reverse effect of salt toxicity that causes superfluous osmotic stress [ 41 ]. In our study, an increase in proline and soluble sugar content was observed in M. oblongifolia plants exposed to salt stress.…”

Genome-Wide Identification and Functional Analysis of Polyamine Oxidase Genes in Maize Reveal Essential Roles in Abiotic Stress Tolerance

“…Recent evidence suggested that GPXs can protect cells from stress-induced oxidative damages and function as a vital component of growth and development in plants ( Bela et al, 2015 ). Moreover, the accumulation of ROS is regulated by a complex antioxidant scavenging system, including GRX, SOD, APX, etc., that function as antioxidants and allow the transmission of oxidative signals ( Singh et al, 2022 ). Therefore, these data suggested that increased the activity of some key antioxidant enzymes and reduced heat-induced H 2 O 2 accumulation, thus enhancing stress resistance of the transgenic plants.…”