Plant Responses to Hypoxia Stress: Signalling Cascades and Regulatory Mechanisms

Floods leading to waterlogged soil and submerged plants are one of the major abiotic stresses affecting plants across the globe. Extended time of waterlogged soil leads to hypoxic conditions and, in some cases, to anoxia as well. The untimely inundation of the soil causes a reduction in plant growth and yields of the crop. Major aspects affected are nutrient uptake efficiency, plant metabolism, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and water uptake efficiency. To comprehend a plant’s response to this stress, it is important to understand the plant’s perception of the stress, signalling of the perception, and its regulatory mechanism. In this chapter, the plant’s signalling cascade under waterlogging stress via ROS, Ca2+, and NO-mediated will be reviewed. Regulation by hormones, transcription factors, regulatory RNAs, and metabolites will further be discussed to understand the plant’s regulatory mechanism.