Abiotic stresses, such as drought, salinity, heat, cold, and heavy metals, are associated with global climate change and hamper plant growth and development, affecting crop yields and quality. However, the negative effects of abiotic stresses can be mitigated through exogenous treatments using small biomolecules. For example, the foliar application of melatonin provides the following: it protects the photosynthetic apparatus; it increases the antioxidant defenses, osmoprotectant, and soluble sugar levels; it prevents tissue damage and reduces electrolyte leakage; it improves reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging; and it increases biomass, maintains the redox and ion homeostasis, and improves gaseous exchange. Glutathione spray upregulates the glyoxalase system, reduces methylglyoxal (MG) toxicity and oxidative stress, decreases hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde accumulation, improves the defense mechanisms, tissue repairs, and nitrogen fixation, and upregulates the phytochelatins. The exogenous application of proline enhances growth and other physiological characteristics, upregulates osmoprotection, protects the integrity of the plasma lemma, reduces lipid peroxidation, increases photosynthetic pigments, phenolic acids, flavonoids, and amino acids, and enhances stress tolerance, carbon fixation, and leaf nitrogen content. The foliar application of glycine betaine improves growth, upregulates osmoprotection and osmoregulation, increases relative water content, net photosynthetic rate, and catalase activity, decreases photorespiration, ion leakage, and lipid peroxidation, protects the oxygen-evolving complex, and prevents chlorosis. Chemical priming has various important advantages over transgenic technology as it is typically more affordable for farmers and safe for plants, people, and animals, while being considered environmentally acceptable. Chemical priming helps to improve the quality and quantity of the yield. This review summarizes and discusses how exogenous melatonin, glutathione, proline, and glycine betaine can help crops combat abiotic stresses.

Cultivated soybean (Glycine max (L.)), the world’s most important legume crop, has high-to-moderate salt sensitivity. Being the frontier for sensing and controlling solute transport, membrane proteins could be involved in cell signaling, osmoregulation, and stress-sensing mechanisms, but their roles in abiotic stresses are still largely unknown. By analyzing salt-induced membrane proteomic changes in the roots and leaves of salt-sensitive soybean cultivar (C08) seedlings germinated under NaCl, we detected 972 membrane proteins, with those present in both leaves and roots annotated as receptor kinases, calcium-sensing proteins, abscisic acid receptors, cation and anion channel proteins, proton pumps, amide and peptide transporters, and vesicle transport-related proteins etc. Endocytosis, linoleic acid metabolism, and fatty acid biosynthesis pathway-related proteins were enriched in roots whereas phagosome, spliceosome and soluble NSF attachment protein receptor (SNARE) interaction-related proteins were enriched in leaves. Using label-free quantitation, 129 differentially expressed membrane proteins were found in both tissues upon NaCl treatment. Additionally, the 140 NaCl-induced proteins identified in roots and 57 in leaves are vesicle-, mitochondrial-, and chloroplast-associated membrane proteins and those with functions related to ion transport, protein transport, ATP hydrolysis, protein folding, and receptor kinases, etc. Our proteomic results were verified against corresponding gene expression patterns from published C08 RNA-seq data, demonstrating the importance of solute transport and sensing in salt stress responses.

Plants, including halophytes (salt‐tolerant) and glycophytes (salt‐sensitive), have developed diverse molecular mechanisms and morphological adaptations to survive in saline environments. The cellular components and molecular processes for salinity sensing and stress tolerance have been extensively identified in glycophytes, but not so with halophytes. Salinity sensing requires the perception of a major soil salinity contributor, that is, sodium ions (Na ⁺ ). The exact molecular mechanism or pathway for Na ⁺ perception is still unclear. The investigations into potential Na ⁺ sensor candidates uncovered glycosyl inositol phosphoryl ceramide (GIPC) phospholipids with direct evidence. In cells, Na ⁺ ions are also sensed by various Non‐selective cation channels (NSCCs), including the cyclic nucleotide‐gated channels (CNGCs) and glutamate receptors (GLRs), and other receptor‐like kinases (RLKs). This review surveyed the roles of GIPCs, CNGCs, GLRs, RLKs, including the Catharanthus roseus RLK1‐like kinases, leucine‐rich repeat extensins, lectin RLKs, and wall‐associated kinases, as potential Na ⁺ sensors in glycophytes and halophytes. Based on current information on these receptors, we proposed new models of Na ⁺ sensing mechanisms in both plant types. The comparison of possible Na ⁺ sensing mechanisms between glycophytes and halophytes might provide future research avenues for improving salt tolerance in crops.

Heat stress, exacerbated by global warming, can cause significant challenges to agriculture, adversely impacting plant growth, reproduction, and yield. This review examines the crucial role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in mediating plant responses to heat stress across various key crops, including Arabidopsis ( Arabidopsis thaliana ), rice ( Oryza sativa ), wheat ( Triticum aestivum ), and other significant species. Under high temperatures, miRNAs regulate gene expression by targeting transcription factors (e.g., SPL , NF‐YA , and Apetala 2 [ AP2 ]), heat shock proteins, and antioxidant enzymes (e.g., copper/zinc superoxide dismutase), thereby modulating pathways involved in hormone signaling, oxidative stress mitigation, and developmental transitions. Advanced high‐throughput sequencing technologies have identified heat‐responsive miRNAs (e.g., miR156, miR398, miR172) and their functional networks, including crosstalk with small interfering RNAs, long noncoding RNAs, and circular RNAs via competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) mechanisms. These findings highlight miRNAs as promising targets for engineering heat‐resilient crops. However, gaps remain in understanding tissue‐specific miRNA dynamics and their integration with epigenetic and multi‐omics networks. Future research should employ integrative approaches to optimize miRNA‐based strategies for sustainable agriculture in the context of climate change.

Dalbergioid is a large group within the family Fabaceae that consists of diverse plant species distributed in distinct biogeographic realms. Here, we have performed a comprehensive study to understand the evolution of the nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeats (NLRs) gene family in Dalbergioids. The evolution of gene families in this group is affected by a common whole genome duplication that occurred approximately 58 million years ago, followed by diploidization that often leads to contraction. Our study suggests that since diploidization, the NLRome of all groups of Dalbergioids is expanding in a clade-specific manner with fewer exceptions. Phylogenetic analysis and classification of NLRs revealed that they belong to seven subgroups. Specific subgroups have expanded in a species-specific manner, leading to divergent evolution. Among the Dalbergia clade, the expansion of NLRome in six species of the genus Dalbergia was observed, with the exception of Dalbergia odorifera, where a recent contraction of NLRome occurred. Similarly, members of the Pterocarpus clade genus Arachis revealed a large-scale expansion in the diploid species. In addition, the asymmetric expansion of NLRome was observed in wild and domesticated tetraploids after recent duplications in the genus Arachis. Our analysis strongly suggests that whole genome duplication followed by tandem duplication after divergence from a common ancestor of Dalbergioids is the major cause of NLRome expansion. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first ever study to provide insight toward the evolution of NLR genes in this important tribe. In addition, accurate identification and characterization of NLR genes is a substantial contribution to the repertoire of resistances among members of the Dalbergioids species.

Synthetic biology is transforming biosensors from passive molecular detectors into programable systems capable of integrating biological sensing with therapeutic decision-making. Conventional biosensors respond to a single molecular input and are inherently limited in interpreting complex biological environments that characterize human disease. Synthetic biology logic gates address this limitation by implementing Boolean computation through modular transcriptional regulators, RNA switches, CRISPR-based regulators, and recombinase systems, enabling autonomous biological decision-making within living cells. These genetic circuits enable biosensors to evaluate multiple disease-relevant inputs simultaneously and generate context-specific diagnostic or therapeutic outputs. This review critically analyzes how logic-gated biosensing systems integrate biological sensing, genetic computation, and therapeutic actuation, while identifying the engineering and translational barriers that currently limit their clinical implementation. Comparison of current platforms shows that increasing circuit complexity generally improves disease specificity and therapeutic precision but often reduces robustness, scalability, and translational feasibility because of circuit leakage, metabolic burden, crosstalk, and biological variability. While AND and SynNotch circuits provide superior target discrimination for cell therapies, CRISPR-based and memory-enabled systems expand programable control but introduce additional engineering challenges. Current clinical translation remains constrained by circuit stability, manufacturing complexity, biosafety, and the lack of standardized regulatory frameworks. Emerging modular circuit design, cell-free biosensing, and artificial intelligence-assisted optimization are beginning to address these limitations and provide more scalable strategies for precision therapeutics. Collectively, this review identifies the engineering principles and design trade-offs that will govern the development of next-generation logic-enabled biosensors from proof-of-concept platforms to clinically deployable therapeutic systems.