ABSTRACT
I. INTRODUCTION The plant response to the environment is a complex set of processes. Changes in the environment result in plant responses at many different levels: morphological, physiological, cellular, and metabolic. The type of response depends on the source of the stress, the duration and severity of the stress, the genotype of the stressed plant, the stage of development, and the organ and cell type in question. To fully understand plant stress, the mechanism by which these responses are regulated and the function of the responses must be characterized and understood. To further understand plant stress, researchers have turned to the study of molecular responses. In this chapter, stresses discussed are water deficit, salt stress, and low-temperature stress. A common link between these stresses is loss of cellular water.
