ABSTRACT
In natural environments, plants are exposed to a set of unfavorable conditions affecting their survival, growth and productivity. Drought, high salinity, heat and cold are major abiotic stresses that cause severe agricultural yield losses. Basic leucine zipper (bZIP) is a family of dimerizing transcription factors (TFs) found in all eukaryotes. The bZIP gene family codes for proteins containing the conserved bZIP domain, which consists of a highly charged basic region and a C-terminal coiled-coil leucine zipper dimerization domain. Plants have a complex system of antioxidant molecules regulated by TFs. Such complexity includes enzymes and non-enzymatic molecules, which act to prevent oxidative injury. As a low-weight and water-soluble molecule, the tripeptide glutathione has a thiol group and remarkable reductive activity, due to its central nucleophilic cysteine. Phenolic compounds are ubiquitous and abundant in plants because of the variety of functions they assume and are, thus, grouped into flavonoids, tannins, lignins, phenolic acids and coumarins.
