Figure 1.

Stress response and recovery experimental design and effects on plant development. A, An illustration of maize developmental stage, stress combination strategy, and sampling time points. Control plants were grown under optimal conditions throughout the experiment. Drought was gradually applied by withholding irrigation. Cold was applied by transferring plants to a precooled growth chamber at 8°C day/4°C night. The combination stress treatment was performed by transferring 3-d-drought plants to a precooled growth chamber. B, Shoot morphology. C, Water content in soil (%). D, Leaf RWC (%). E, Survival rate (%). The data are means ± sd (n ≥ 10). Different letters indicate significant differences between treatments and control plants from Student’s unpaired two-tailed t test (P < 0.05). CT, control; C, cold; D, drought; and D&C, the combination of drought and cold.