Abiotic stress poses major problems to agriculture and increasing efforts are being made to understand plant stress response and tolerance mechanisms and to develop new tools that underpin successful agriculture. However, the molecular mechanisms of plant stress tolerance are not fully understood, and the data available is incomplete and sometimes contradictory. Here, we review the significance of protein and non-protein thiol compounds in relation to plant tolerance of abiotic stress. First, the roles of the amino acids cysteine and methionine, are discussed, followed by an extensive discussion of the low-molecular-weight tripeptide, thiol glutathione, which plays a central part in plant stress response and oxidative signalling and of glutathione-related enzymes, including those involved in the biosynthesis of non-protein thiol compounds. Special attention is given to the glutathione redox state, to phytochelatins and to the role of glutathione in the regulation of the cell cycle. The protein thiol section focuses on glutaredoxins and thioredoxins, proteins with oxidoreductase activity, which are involved in protein glutathionylation. The review concludes with a brief overview of and future perspectives for the involvement of plant thiols in abiotic stress tolerance.

Parasitic angiosperms, comprising a diverse group of flowering plants, are partially or fully dependent on their hosts to acquire water, mineral nutrients and organic compounds. Some have detrimental effects on agriculturally important crop plants. They are also intriguing model systems to study adaptive mechanisms required for the transition from an autotrophic to a heterotrophic metabolism. No less than any other plant, parasitic plants are affected by abiotic stress factors such as drought and changes in temperature, saline soils or contamination with metals or herbicides. These effects may be attributed to the direct influence of the stress, but also to diminished host availability and suitability. Although several studies on abiotic stress response of parasitic plants are available, still little is known about how abiotic factors affect host preferences, defense mechanisms of both hosts and parasites and the effects of combinations of abiotic and biotic stress experienced by the host plants. The latter effects are of specific interest as parasitic plants pose additional pressure on contemporary agriculture in times of climate change. This review summarizes the existing literature on abiotic stress response of parasitic plants, highlighting knowledge gaps and discussing perspectives for future research and potential agricultural applications.

Contemporary agriculture is facing new challenges with the increasing population and demand for food on Earth and the decrease in crop productivity due to abiotic stresses such as water deficit, high salinity, and extreme fluctuations of temperatures. The knowledge of plant stress responses, though widely extended in recent years, is still unable to provide efficient strategies for improvement of agriculture. The focus of study has been shifted to the plant cell wall as a dynamic and crucial component of the plant cell that could immediately respond to changes in the environment. The investigation of plant cell wall proteins, especially in commercially important monocot crops revealed the high involvement of this compartment in plants stress responses, but there is still much more to be comprehended. The aim of this review is to summarize the available data on this issue and to point out the future areas of interest that should be studied in detail.

Background: The climate is the dominant factor that affects the distribution of plants.Cuscuta chinensisis a stem holoparasitic plant without leaves or roots, which develops a haustorium and sucks nutrients from host plants. The potential distribution of the parasitic plantC. chinensishas not been predicted to date. This study used Maxent modeling to predict the potential global distribution ofC. chinensis, based on the following six main bioclimatic variables: annual mean temperature, isothermality, temperature seasonality, precipitation seasonality, precipitation of the warmest quarter, and precipitation of the coldest quarter.Results: The optimal annual average temperature and isothermality ofC. chinensisranged from 4 to 37 °C and less than 45, respectively, while the optimal temperature seasonality and precipitation seasonality ranged from 4000 to 25,000 and from 50 to 130, respectively. The optimal precipitation of the warmest season ranged from 300 to 1000 mm and from 2500 to 3500 mm, while that of the coldest season was less than 2000 mm. In Asia,C. chinensisis mainly distributed at latitudes ranging from 20° N to 50° N. During three specific historical periods (last glacial maximum, mid-Holocene, and 1960–1990) the habitats suitable forC. chinensiswere concentrated in the central, northern, southern, and eastern parts of China. From the last glacial maximum to the mid-Holocene, the total area with suitability of 0.5–1 increased by 0.0875 million km²; however, from the mid-Holocene to 1960–1990, the total area with suitability of 0.5–1 decreased by 0.0759 million km². The simulation results of habitat suitability in the two representative concentration pathways (RCP) 2.6 (i.e., the low greenhouse gas emissions pathway) and 8.5 (i.e., the high greenhouse gas emissions pathway) indicate that the habitat suitability ofC. chinensisdecreased in response to the warming climate. Compared with RCP2.6, areas with averaged suitability and high suitability for survival (RCP8.5) decreased by 0.18 million km².Conclusion: Suitable habitats ofC. chinensisare situated in central, northern, southern, and eastern China. The habitat suitability ofC. chinensisdecreased in response to the warming climate. These results provide a reference for the management and control ofC. chinensis.

Parasitic plants extract nutrients from the other plants to finish their life cycle and reproduce. The control of parasitic weeds is notoriously difficult due to their tight physical association and their close biological relationship to their hosts. Parasitic plants differ in their susceptible host ranges, and the host species differ in their susceptibility to parasitic plants. Current data show that adaptations of parasitic plants to various hosts are largely genetically determined. However, multiple cases of rapid adaptation in genetically homogenous parasitic weed populations to new hosts strongly suggest the involvement of epigenetic mechanisms. Recent progress in genome-wide analyses of gene expression and epigenetic features revealed many new molecular details of the parasitic plants’ interactions with their host plants. The experimental data obtained in the last several years show that multiple common features have independently evolved in different lines of the parasitic plants. In this review we discuss the most interesting new details in the interaction between parasitic and host plants.

Parasitic flowering plants represent a diverse group of angiosperms, ranging from exotic species with limited distribution to prominent weeds, causing significant yield losses in agricultural crops. The major damage caused by them is related to the extraction of water and nutrients from the host, thus decreasing vegetative growth, flowering, and seed production. Members of the root parasites of the Orobanchaceae family and stem parasites of the genus Cuscuta are among the most aggressive and damaging weeds, affecting both monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous crops worldwide. Their control and eradication are hampered by the extreme seed longevity and persistence in soil, as well as their taxonomic position, which makes it difficult to apply selective herbicides not damaging to the hosts. The selection of resistant cultivars is among the most promising approaches to deal with this matter, although still not widely employed due to limited knowledge of the molecular mechanisms of host resistance and inheritance. The current review aims to summarize the available information on host resistance with a focus on agriculturally important parasitic plants and to outline the future perspectives of resistant crop cultivar selection to battle the global threat of parasitic plants.