Many changes in gene expression occur in response to water-deficit stress. These changes may lead to cellular adaptation of water-deficit stress. A challenge is to determine which changes support plant adaptation to conditions of reduced soil water content and which occur in response to lesions in metabolic and cellular functions. Most work in this field has concentrated on the responses to water-deficit stress at the cellular level, but as people's understanding improves, it will be important to develop a framework to integrate the cellular responses with whole plant responses. Therefore, thi...
