Plant adaptations to overwintering stresses and implications of climate change

Winter survival is a complex trait that does not solely rely on the plant's ability to withstand the direct effects of extreme cold temperatures. During long overwintering periods, plants are exposed to multiple abiotic (ice encasement, frost heave, desiccation, anoxia) and biotic (snow mould and other psychrophylic pathogens) stresses. Tolerance to these various stresses is based in part on shared adaptive traits and, consequently, cross-adaptation to environmental stresses is a key aspect of plant adaptation to cold. Increasing evidence of multiple functions for stress-induced proteins in overwintering plants confirms the need for a global approach in the analysis of adaptive mechanisms. From that perspective, the valorization of rapidly increasing knowledge on the molecular and genetic basis of plant and microbe adaptations to cold will demand multidisciplinary collaborations. Climate change will also need to be taken into account to identify the adaptive traits that will be required for agricultural and forest plants to survive winter in the future. More studies at the global and regional scales will be needed to assess the potential impact of climate warming on plant adaptation to winter and their interactions with low-temperature pathogens.