Plants regularly face adverse growth conditions, such as drought, salinity, chilling, freezing, and high temperatures. These stresses can delay growth and development, reduce productivity, and, in extreme cases, cause plant death. Plant stress responses are dynamic and involve complex cross-talk between different regulatory levels, including adjustment of metabolism and gene expression for physiological and morphological adaptation. In this review, information about metabolic regulation in response to drought, extreme temperature, and salinity stress is summarized and the signalling events involved in mediating stress-induced metabolic changes are presented.

Abiotic stresses adversely affect plant growth and development. The hormone abscisic acid (ABA) plays a central role in the response and adaptation to environmental constraints. However, apart from the well established role of ABA in regulating gene expression programmes, little is known about its function in plant stress metabolism. Using an integrative multiparallel approach of metabolome and transcriptome analyses, we studied the dynamic response of the model glyophyte Arabidopsis thaliana to ABA and high salt conditions. Our work shows that salt stress induces complex re-adjustment of carbohydrate metabolism and that ABA triggers the initial steps of carbon mobilisation. These findings open new perspectives on how high salinity and ABA impact on central carbohydrate metabolism and highlight the power of iterative combinatorial approaches of non-targeted and hypothesis-driven experiments in stress biology.

Diverse stresses such as high salt conditions cause an increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS), necessitating a redox stress response. However, little is known about the signaling pathways that regulate the antioxidant system to counteract oxidative stress. Here, we show that a Glycogen Synthase Kinase3 from Arabidopsis thaliana (ASKα) regulates stress tolerance by activating Glc-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), which is essential for maintaining the cellular redox balance. Loss of stress-activated ASKα leads to reduced G6PD activity, elevated levels of ROS, and enhanced sensitivity to salt stress. Conversely, plants overexpressing ASKα have increased G6PD activity and low levels of ROS in response to stress and are more tolerant to salt stress. ASKα stimulates the activity of a specific cytosolic G6PD isoform by phosphorylating the evolutionarily conserved Thr-467, which is implicated in cosubstrate binding. Our results reveal a novel mechanism of G6PD adaptive regulation that is critical for the cellular stress response.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)-dependent signaling pathways from chloroplasts and mitochondria merge at the nuclear protein RADICAL-INDUCED CELL DEATH1 (RCD1). RCD1 interacts in vivo and suppresses the activity of the transcription factors ANAC013 and ANAC017, which mediate a ROS-related retrograde signal originating from mitochondrial complex III. Inactivation of RCD1 leads to increased expression of mitochondrial dysfunction stimulon (MDS) genes regulated by ANAC013 and ANAC017. Accumulating MDS gene products, including alternative oxidases (AOXs), affect redox status of the chloroplasts, leading to changes in chloroplast ROS processing and increased protection of photosynthetic apparatus. ROS alter the abundance, thiol redox state and oligomerization of the RCD1 protein in vivo, providing feedback control on its function. RCD1-dependent regulation is linked to chloroplast signaling by 3'-phosphoadenosine 5'-phosphate (PAP). Thus, RCD1 integrates organellar signaling from chloroplasts and mitochondria to establish transcriptional control over the metabolic processes in both organelles.

Aims: High salinity stress impairs plant growth and development. Trehalose metabolism has been implicated in sugar signaling, and enhanced trehalose metabolism can positively regulate abiotic stress tolerance. However, the molecular mechanism(s) of the stress-related trehalose pathway and the role of individual trehalose biosynthetic enzymes for stress tolerance remain unclear. Results: Trehalose-6-phosphate phosphatase (TPP) catalyzes the final step of trehalose metabolism. Investigating the subcellular localization of the Arabidopsis thaliana TPP family members, we identified AtTPPD as a chloroplast-localized enzyme. Plants deficient in AtTPPD were hypersensitive, whereas plants overexpressing AtTPPD were more tolerant to high salinity stress. Elevated stress tolerance of AtTPPD overexpressors correlated with high starch levels and increased accumulation of soluble sugars, suggesting a role for AtTPPD in regulating sugar metabolism under salinity conditions. Biochemical analyses indicate that AtTPPD is a target of post-translational redox regulation and can be reversibly inactivated by oxidizing conditions. Two cysteine residues were identified as the redox-sensitive sites. Structural and mutation analyses suggest that the formation of an intramolecular disulfide bridge regulates AtTPPD activity. Innovation: The activity of different AtTPP isoforms, located in the cytosol, nucleus, and chloroplasts, can be redox regulated, suggesting that the trehalose metabolism might relay the redox status of different cellular compartments to regulate diverse biological processes such as stress responses. Conclusion: The evolutionary conservation of the two redox regulatory cysteine residues of TPPs in spermatophytes indicates that redox regulation of TPPs might be a common mechanism enabling plants to rapidly adjust trehalose metabolism to the prevailing environmental and developmental conditions. Antioxid. Redox Signal. 21, 1289–1304.

The remarkable plasticity of the biochemical machinery in plants allows the integration of a multitude of stimuli, enabling acclimation to a wide range of growth conditions. The integration of information on light and temperature enables plants to sense seasonal changes and adjust growth, defense, and transition to flowering according to the prevailing conditions. By now, the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as important signaling molecules has been established. Here, we review recent data on ROS as important components in the integration of light and temperature signaling by crosstalk with the circadian clock and calcium signaling. Furthermore, we highlight that different environmental conditions critically affect the interpretation of stress stimuli, and consequently defense mechanisms and stress outcome. For example, day length plays an important role in whether enhanced ROS production under stress conditions is directed towards activation of redox poising mechanisms or triggering programmed cell death (PCD). Furthermore, a mild increase in temperature can cause down-regulation of immunity and render plants more sensitive to biotrophic pathogens. Taken together, the evidence presented here demonstrates the complexity of signaling pathways and outline the importance of their correct interpretation in context with the given environmental conditions.