Engineering resilience in woody plants: multi-omics, genome editing, and microbiome strategies to boost abiotic stress tolerance

Abstract

Woody plants are critical to human well-being, serving as major sources of biomass and increasingly recognized as promising biofuel resources. They contribute to climate regulation and act as long-term carbon sinks, while also mitigating pollution, flooding, and noise, and providing essential habitats for wildlife. However, recent climatic extremes have underscored the vulnerability of woody species to abiotic stress. In this review, we propose a conceptual framework for stress-adapted woody crops that links physiological responses to resilience biomarkers and outlines strategies to enhance abiotic stress tolerance. We synthesize findings on the sensing structures, physiological networks, and molecular dynamics of woody plants under environmental challenges. Mechanisms of resistance and recovery are examined at both the organismal and cellular levels. We further discuss the integration of genomics, systems biology, and genome-editing technologies to develop climate-resilient woody crops. While many of these emerging tools remain underutilized, their potential is greatly amplified when combined with machine learning-based analyses of genomic data, offering a roadmap for engineering stress-resilient traits and implementing actionable “therapeutic” frameworks. This review highlights recent advances and proposes future directions for improving woody plant performance under abiotic stress.