Plants are always facing environmental challenges, such as drought, salinity, high and low temperature. Such ‘environmental stress’ is a major threat to the world crop yield, especially under the currently ongoing climate changes. Throughout my research career, I have studied plant mechanisms to survive changing environments.

 

In plants, reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced in response to stress stimuli work as universal ‘alert signals’ to regulate defense genes, but the ROS signaling mechanism in plants has been largely unclear. Reactive carbonyl species (RCS), the lipid peroxide-derived α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones, were recognized as endogenous factors to cause cell damage via protein modification.