Studies on plant responses to environmental change in China: the past and the future

Abstract

Chinese scientists have made remarkable achievements in plant research since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, especially in the past 40 years during the reform and opening to the outside world. In this review, we summarize the contributions of Chinese plant scientists in the field of plant abiotic stress responses, such as drought, salt, light stress, low and high temperatures, and heavy metals and aluminum poison, using Arabidopsis, rice, maize, wheat, cotton, and other crops as materials. We also discuss the major challenges in plant abiotic stress research, and put forward the possibility of designing crops that are tolerant to multiple environmental stresses.