Reproductive Resilience and Growth–Defense Tradeoffs Under Combined Abiotic and Biotic Stresses in Crops

In plant physiology and crop science, understanding how crops respond to combined, sequential, or individual abiotic and biotic stresses is an increasingly important area of research. Plants in natural and agricultural environments rarely encounter stress factors in isolation; rather, drought, salinity, heat, nutrient deficiencies, pathogen infection, and herbivore attacks frequently occur together, generating complex physiological challenges. These interacting stresses impose constraints that differ fundamentally from individual stress responses and can disrupt essential processes such as carbon assimilation, water regulation, and defense activation. Their impact is particularly critical during reproductive development, when relatively small perturbations in resource allocation or defense activation can lead to significant reductions in fertilization success, seed set, and final yield.The reproductive phase, encompassing flowering, pollination, fruit or grain development, and seed filling, represents one of the most vulnerable windows in the plant life cycle under combined, sequential, or individual stress conditions. During this stage, plants must coordinate growth, maintain photosynthetic activity and water balance, and deploy defense responses while sustaining the viability of reproductive organs. These competing demands often intensify growth–defense tradeoffs and influence how carbon, nitrogen, and water resources are partitioned among tissues. Importantly, the physiological mechanisms governing these outcomes frequently differ from those operating during vegetative growth, highlighting the need for stage-specific and organ-specific investigations that connect mechanistic understanding with crop productivity.This Research Topic aims to elucidate how crops and horticultural species integrate growth, defense, and reproductive development when exposed to combined, sequential, or individual abiotic and biotic stresses. Particular emphasis will be placed on developmental stage specificity and on the physiological coordination of resource allocation and source–sink dynamics during reproductive stages. By examining how multiple stress cues are integrated across cellular, physiological, and agronomic levels, this Topic seeks to advance understanding of the mechanisms that determine reproductive resilience and yield stability under realistic single or multi-stress environments.We welcome contributions that investigate plant responses to simultaneous, sequential, or individual abiotic and biotic stresses across key stages of the crop life cycle, especially those addressing reproductive development. Studies that integrate physiological, molecular, and agronomic perspectives, particularly under field or field-simulated conditions, are strongly encouraged. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:• Growth–defense tradeoffs under simultaneous, sequential, or individual abiotic and biotic stresses;• Resource allocation dynamics (carbon, nitrogen, and water) during reproductive development;• Physiological and photosynthetic performance and source–sink coordination under combined or individual stress environments;• Comparative analyses of single vs combined stress responses;• Impacts of combined stresses on pollen viability, fertilization success, seed development, and yield stability;• Organ- and stage-specific physiological and metabolic coordination to multi-stress environments;• Field-based or realistic multi-factor experiments linking mechanistic insights to agronomic performance.We invite original research articles, methodological innovations (such as tools and platforms for combined stress phenotyping), comprehensive reviews, and perspective pieces elucidating how plants integrate multiple stress cues during critical developmental periods. Works focusing on crop and horticultural species under realistic or field-simulated conditions are particularly encouraged. Topic editors: Amith R. Devireddy, Raphael Ployet, Monika Dalal Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/79368/reproductive-resilience-and-growth-defense-tradeoffs-under-combined-abiotic-and-biotic-stresses-in-crops