Abiotic stress is a major factor influencing the biosphere and our food supply, yet our understanding of how algae and land plants respond to these stresses remains limited. Gaining this knowledge is essential for engineering crops that are more resilient to adverse conditions. To unravel the diverse coping strategies plants employ, we investigate how they acclimatize to various abiotic stresses, including cold, heat, drought, high light, salinity, and nutrient deficiencies. Our experimental approach utilizes an environmental growth chamber capable of modulating temperature (0-60°C), light intensity (0-2000 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹), humidity (20-100% RH), and day length. We apply these stresses both individually and in combination (e.g., heat with darkness, heat with high light) to study their interactions. This includes exploring whether certain sublethal stresses become lethal when combined and understanding the underlying mechanisms. Additionally, we develop computational models to predict plant responses to combined stresses. ![[marchantia stress.png|600]] *We showed that regression approaches can predict gene expression in combined stresses. This indicates that it is possible to predict how plants will behave in natural settings* Currently, we are studying stress responses of several crops and a model bryophyte *Marchantia polymorpha*, but we aim to expand our studies to more species, including algae, to better understand the [[Evolution]] of [[Abiotic stress]] responses. We are also interested to understand how [[Abiotic stress]] and [[Specialized metabolism]] are related. Plants use specialized metabolism to survive adverse conditions (e.g., flavonols protect plants from harmful UV radiation), and the specialized metabolism can highly responsive to different growth conditions. For example, just by increasing the light intensity, we observe a 5-fold increase the anti-cancer activity of Hedyotis (Oldenlandia) corymbosa plants. Thus, abiotic stresses can be used to modulate the levels of specialized metabolites and activity of their biosynthetic pathways, and present a good system to study the underlying regulatory networks. ![[Pasted image 20240823222749.png | 600]] *Metabolite composition is highly influenced by growth conditions* Representative papers on abiotic stress from our group: 1. [ Cross-stress gene expression atlas of Marchantia polymorpha reveals the hierarchy and regulatory principles of abiotic stress responses.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36813788/) Tan QW, Lim PK, Chen Z, Pasha A, Provart N, Arend M, Nikoloski Z, Mutwil M. Nat Commun (IF: 14.92; **Q1**). 2023 Feb 22;14(1):986. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-36517-w. 2. [Gene expression analysis of Cyanophora paradoxa reveals conserved abiotic stress responses between basal algae and flowering plants.](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31602652/)Ferrari C, Mutwil M. New Phytol (IF: 10.15; **Q1**). 2020 Feb;225(4):1562-1577. doi: 10.1111/nph.16257.