Signaling Molecules in Plant Stress Tolerance and Redox Homeostasis

Plant physiology and biochemistry have increasingly focused on the pivotal roles of signaling molecules in enabling plants to sense, respond to, and survive adverse environmental conditions. With escalating challenges such as climate change, soil deterioration, and the demands of global food security, plants must contend with a myriad of abiotic and biotic stresses that compromise core processes like photosynthesis, metabolism, and reproduction. Recent advances highlight a diverse array of plant signaling molecules—including phytohormones, gasotransmitters, reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, calcium ions, and myriad small metabolites—as central coordinators in orchestrating adaptive physiological and biochemical responses. Ongoing research is unraveling the elaborate networks through which these messengers fine-tune antioxidant systems and sustain redox balance under duress. However, despite progress in mapping individual pathways and characterizing their components, major gaps persist regarding the dynamic interplay, integration, and crosstalk among these signals that ultimately dictate stress resilience. Understanding how plants interpret and combine multiple simultaneous stress signals, and pinpointing key regulatory nodes across scales from genes to the whole plant, remain active areas of investigation essential for sustainable agriculture.This Research Topic aims to elucidate the integrative roles of signaling molecules in regulating plant responses to environmental stresses, emphasizing how their networks coordinate physiological, biochemical, and gene expression changes. The principal objective is to uncover the mechanisms through which distinct molecules—such as abscisic acid, ethylene, jasmonic acid, salicylic acid, nitric oxide, hydrogen sulfide, melatonin, calcium, and redox mediators—interact to shape plant stress perception, signal transduction, and adaptive responses. By addressing how these signaling systems orchestrate processes like growth, nutrient optimization, water relations, and antioxidant defenses under stress, the Topic aspires to answer pressing questions about multi-signal integration and system-wide regulation. Ultimately, this initiative seeks to drive transformative discoveries that inform both the rational development of more stress-tolerant crop varieties and practical interventions for improving plant resilience in increasingly volatile environments.The range of this Research Topic encompasses research on the mechanisms and impacts of signaling molecules in regulating plant physiology, biochemistry, and molecular networks that confer stress tolerance across diverse environmental conditions. Submissions should focus on the regulatory roles and interactions of major plant signaling components without extending into unrelated topics in pure plant genetics or unrelated agronomic practices.We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Coordination of growth, photosynthesis, and metabolic balance by phytohormones (ABA, SA, JA, ethylene, brassinosteroids) under stress• Gasotransmitters and their functions in redox regulation and antioxidant defense• Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as regulators of redox homeostasis and biochemical stress responses• Calcium signaling and associated kinase cascades in stress perception and cellular reprogramming• Modulation of plant water relations, nutrient dynamics, and physiological resilience by signaling pathways• Biochemical adjustments through metabolites such as sugars, amino acids, polyamines, melatonin, lipids, and GABA shunt• Crosstalk between hormonal, metabolic, and redox signaling networks• Omics and systems biology approaches for mapping complex signaling pathways• Applications of signaling molecules as priming agents or biostimulants for enhanced stress toleranceWe encourage the submission of original research articles, comprehensive review papers, and integrative perspectives. Topic editors: Yamshi Arif, Shamsul Hayat, Andrzej Bajguz Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76905/signaling-molecules-in-plant-stress-tolerance-and-redox-homeostasis