More and more people are realizing that what we may really need to examine is how a plant responds to a combination of different stresses, as opposed to a single-stress condition.

The negative impact of global climatic changes on agricultural production is also a looming threat that we need to prepare for, and the goals of improving the abiotic stress tolerance of major crops is becoming increasingly important.

The case for studying stress combinations at the molecular level with the intent of developing major crops with an enhanced tolerance to the true environmental effects that occur in the field is therefore an attractive possibility.

This paper describes a new concept in the molecular study of abiotic stress in plants (i.e., a study of stress combination, as opposed to a single-stress condition). It bridges between the knowledge, needs, and goals of classical breeders, farmers, and agronomists, who are well aware of the impact of stress combination on crops and also of molecular, biochemical, and physiological studies of the abiotic stress tolerance tests of model plants, as performed in most academic research institutes worldwide.

The significance of this paper is that it was the first to suggest to those scientists who are trying to develop transgenic plants which display an enhanced tolerance to environmental stress, that these studies may not actually result in crops which display an enhanced tolerance in the field, and that what is needed instead is to concentrate their efforts on developing transgenic plants which exhibit an enhanced tolerance to a combination of different abiotic stresses, such as drought and heat, as opposed to trying to develop plants that are specifically tolerant either to drought or heat.

My interest in this field comes from my limited agronomic background and from studying desert plants within their natural environment, realizing that plants, as they exist in nature, have to endure a combination of different abiotic stresses.

Studying stress combinations in the lab is, however, much more complicated than studying a single-stress condition. One needs to design the experiments in such a way that will mimic conditions in the field and one must also include several different controls that address the response of plants to each of the different stress conditions as well as their combinations.

Abiotic stresses such as a combination of drought and heat can have a devastating sociological and economical impact. The increasing events of extreme weather conditions that are expected in the coming years due to climatic changes and the increasing threat of desertification highlight the need to develop crops with enhanced tolerance to extreme weather conditions. These could be food crops, but also crops designated for the production of biofuels to counter the effects of global warming.