A biotic or abiotic stress?

Abstract

Throughout their lifespan plants are exposed to numerous biotic and abiotic stresses that may affect their normal growth, development and reproduction. In order to survive, they have evolved elaborate mechanisms to perceive and respond to each type of stress. A complex and still obscure network of interactions between hormones and genes expression allows the plant to fine tune the appropriate response. Each type of stress has received a great deal of attention and many important discoveries allow researchers to begin to unravel each signaling pathway. However, more and more evidence suggest that studying each response in isolation is an oversimplification. Indeed, plants are able to integrate multiple signals and respond to different stresses in a specific manner. Moreover, evidence indicates that each stress/pathway interacts with each other. Recent progress in transcriptome analysis and the construction of large databases centralizing microarray data from different laboratories, allows researchers to carry out comparative approaches. These types of approaches, revealed interesting and important networks. These give us the opportunity to understand the plant responses in a more comprehensive, integrative manner. In this chapter, we describe the role of different phyto-hormones in mediating various biotic and abiotic stress responses and also discuss the possible mechanisms by which they can provide tolerance to those stresses. © 2010 Springer Science + Business Media B.V. All Rights Reserved.