Independent Report
ISLAMABAD – October 24, 2025
Landmark study reveals how plants survive drought, heat, and salinity – advancing climate-resilient agriculture
A joint team of Pakistani and Chinese scientists has unveiled groundbreaking insights into the molecular and biochemical pathways that help horticultural crops survive under multiple environmental stresses — including drought, high salinity, and extreme heat.
The collaborative review, titled “Insights into Molecular and Biochemical Approaches of Multi-Stress Responses in Horticultural Crops,” was submitted in January 2025, accepted by Springer Nature’s Plant Growth Regulation Journal in July 2025, and published online on October 16, 2025, according to Gwadar Pro.
The research was led by Dr. Murad Muhammad, Dr. Abdul Basit, and Dr. Li Li, representing premier institutions in both Pakistan and China. The study was conducted jointly at the State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology and the Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Conservation and Application in Arid Lands, both affiliated with the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Urumqi.
These advanced laboratories provided vital molecular and biochemical analysis facilities essential for arid-land horticultural research. On the Pakistani side, contributions came from The University of Faisalabad and The University of Agriculture, Peshawar, strengthening the growing research partnership between the two countries.
The paper explores how transcription factors, ion transporters, and antioxidant enzymes interact to maintain plant cellular stability during stress conditions, revealing potential methods to enhance drought and salinity tolerance.
> “Horticultural crops face stresses that threaten their productivity and survival, making it imperative to unravel the molecular mechanisms governing their multi-stress responses,” the authors noted.
The study found that abiotic stressors such as drought and heat influence over 90% of crop growth limitations in arid and semi-arid regions — notably across Pakistan and western China.
According to the researchers, a deeper understanding of these stress-response mechanisms could help design sustainable agricultural strategies and improve food security amid climate change.
The paper also emphasizes modern ‘omics’-based tools — such as genomics and proteomics — as the future of horticultural biotechnology, helping accelerate breeding programs for stress-tolerant cultivars.
By combining Pakistani expertise in crop science with Chinese advancements in molecular ecology, this research contributes to a broader Pak-China scientific collaboration under the CAS framework, fostering sustainable agriculture, biodiversity protection, and climate adaptation
