Environmental changes, such as drought, impose challenges on agriculture by inducing
oxidative stress. Desiccation-tolerant species, like Haberlea rhodopensis, offer insight
into plant defence against oxidative damage. Their ability to survive extreme water
scarcity while preserving the photosynthetic apparatus makes them valuable models
for studying adaptive strategies and potential crop improvement. Free radicals, often
associated with oxidative damage are also important in signalling. Among them nitric
oxide was found to accumulate in root tips at the start of dehydration, parallel to
the increased oxidative defence in both leaves and shoots but was suppressed under
severe desiccation. Nitric oxide signal also remains relatively stable following rehydration
suggesting a persisting stress response and the faster reaction time of roots to water
deficit. We aim to uncover the associated defence mechanisms of H. rhodopensis for
its exceptional survival under extreme conditions by transcriptome analysis during
dehydration and subsequent rehydration.
This work was supported by the bilateral mobility grant between the Bulgarian and
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (IC-HU/03/2022–2023; NKM 2021-34) and by the New
National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities, Hungary (ÚNKP-22-3-II-ELTE
-755).
