How to Cope With Stress in the Desert—The Date Palm Approach

• Published in: Plant, cell and environment cell and environment, 2025-01, Vol.48 (1), p.768-780
• Main Authors: Du, Baoguo, Franzisky, Bastian Leander, Muhammad, Waqas, Alfarraj, Saleh, Geilfus, Christoph‐Martin, Rennenberg, Heinz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Physiological; antioxidants; Arid regions; Arid zones; Climate Change; Climate change mitigation; Desert Climate; Desert environments; Desert plants; Desertification; Drought; Droughts; environment; Environmental conditions; Environmental stress; Flowers & plants; forestry; heat; humans; Indigenous species; Land use; local and systematic responses; ozone; phenolic compounds; Phoeniceae - physiology; Phoenix dactylifera; Plant species; Plants (botany); Reactive oxygen species; Reactive Oxygen Species - metabolism; Review; salinity; Scavenging; secondary metabolites; species; Stress, Physiological; troposphere
• ISSN: 0140-7791; 1365-3040; 1365-3040
• DOI: 10.1111/pce.15188

ABSTRACT Increasing desertification constitutes a global environmental problem, mainly driven by climate change and inappropriate land‐use that limits agriculture, forestry and human colonization. The selection of suitable plant species to mitigate desertification is particularly challenging, as it usually requires simultaneous counteraction against a whole set of unfavourable environmental conditions, including heat, drought, high tropospheric ozone and salinity. It therefore seems useful to identify the survival strategies of plants native in desert environments. Date palm constitutes a plant species native in desert environments and cultivated worldwide in arid regions that have been studied intensively for stress defence during the last decade. The present review summarizes the current state of biochemical stress defence mechanisms including avoidance, osmotic and metabolic adjustments and reactive oxygen species scavenging, addresses whole‐plant regulations and trade‐off between stress compensation/defence and growth of date palms. The review advances our knowledge about how this typical desert species copes with both individual and multiple environmental stresses at the cellular to the whole‐plant level, and identifies areas of future research required to fully understand the strategies of this plant species to survive in the desert, thereby contributing to efforts for the mitigation of climate change and desertification. Summary statement This review summarizes the current state of biochemical stress defence mechanisms with date palms and identifies areas of future research required to fully understand the strategies of this plant species to survive in the desert, thereby contributing to mitigate climate change and desertification.