Roles of stress-associated proteins in plant abiotic stress responses

As a consequence of irregular and rapid changes in the external environment, plants are constantly exposed to a diverse range of stresses, including desiccation, high salinity, extreme temperatures, and metal toxicity. To contend with these stresses, plants have evolved an elaborate array of defense mechanisms and defense-related molecules, including a range of regulatory proteins. Stress-associated proteins (SAPs), a novel subclass of zinc-finger proteins, have been established to play key roles in plant stress responses. These SAPs, which tend to be structurally conserved among different plant species and are typically characterized by a combination of the A20, AN1, and C2H2 domains, have attracted considerable interest in recent decades on account of their involvement in diverse abiotic stress responses. In this review, we aim to provide a brief overview of the discovery and identification of SAPs in plants, with a particular focus on their roles in response to different abiotic stresses. In this regard, phenotypic analyses using transgenic plants have highlighted the dual regulatory role of SAPs in modulating stress responses, wherein by inducing physiological and morphological alterations at the cellular level, they can contribute to both positive and negative effects. However, despite significant advances in the characterization of these proteins, their precise functions remain incompletely understood. This review consolidates our current knowledge regarding SAPs and delineates potential avenues for future research, which we anticipate will unravel the intricate functional dynamics of SAPs in plant stress responses.