Biotechnology Bulletin ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (4): 26-37.doi: 10.13560/j.cnki.biotech.bull.1985.2025-0791

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Advances in Coordinated Tolerance Mechanisms to Abiotic Stresses in Rice

YIN Ya-long1,2(), ZHANG Ming-yang1,2, WANG Jie-min3,4, MIAO Xue-xue3,4, CHEN Jin3, WANG Wei-ping2,3,4()   

  1. 1.Hainan University, Haikou 570228
    2.National Technology Innovation Center for Salt-Tolerant Rice at Sanya, Sanya 572000
    3.State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Changsha 410125
    4.Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center, Changsha 410125
  • Received:2025-07-23 Online:2026-02-09 Published:2026-02-09
  • Contact: WANG Wei-ping E-mail:Yinyalong1997@outlook.com;wangweiping@hhrrc.ac.cn

Abstract:

Global climate change is intensifying the occurrence of compound abiotic stresses, such as salinity-drought, drought-heat, salinity-heat, and salinity-drought-heat in rice production, constituting a major threat to global food security. Although targeted genetic improvement has successfully enhanced crop tolerance to individual abiotic stresses, the inherent genetic complexity and nonlinear interactions among multiple stresses have impeded systematic increase of crop’s resistance to compound abiotic stress. Understanding the coordinated tolerance mechanisms in plants under multifaceted stress conditions is therefore key to advancing crop performance under such challenges. This review systematically summarizes the principal response mechanisms of rice (Oryza sativa) to individual abiotic stresses (salinity, drought, and heat) as well as to compound stresses (salinity-drought, drought-heat, salinity-heat, and salinity-drought-heat). This review outlines fundamental adaptation strategies to single stresses, such as ion homeostasis and osmotic adjustment and elucidates integrated response mechanisms involving signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, metabolic reprogramming, and epigenetic modifications under compound stress conditions. Furthermore, it identifies critical limitations in current compound stress research, including poor field relevance, the absence of standardized multi-omics data integration, and insufficient mechanistic insight into nonlinear stress interactions. To address these gaps, we propose future strategies such as enhancing cross-scale validation linking field phenotyping to molecular mechanisms, establishing unified platforms for multi-omics data standardization, and optimizing genetic solutions that balance stress adaptation with growth and productivity. This review provides a conceptual framework for breeding rice with enhanced compound stress tolerance and offers valuable insights for developing resilient cultivars suited to increasingly variable and stressful climates.

Key words: rice, compound abiotic stress, salinity stress, drought stress, heat stress, coordinated tolerance mechanism