Small ubiquitin-like modifiers E3 ligases in plant stress

Plants regularly encounter various environmental stresses such as salt, drought, cold, heat, heavy metals and pathogens, leading to changes in their proteome. Of these, a post-translational modification, SUMOylation is particularly significant for its extensive involvement in regulating various plant molecular processes to counteract these external stressors. Small ubiquitin-like modifiers (SUMO) protein modification significantly contributes to various plant functions, encompassing growth, development and response to environmental stresses. The SUMO system has a limited number of ligases even in fully sequenced plant genomes but SUMO E3 ligases are pivotal in recognising substrates during the process of SUMOylation. E3 ligases play pivotal roles in numerous biological and developmental processes in plants, including DNA repair, photomorphogenesis, phytohormone signalling and responses to abiotic and biotic stress. A considerable number of targets for E3 ligases are proteins implicated in reactions to abiotic and biotic stressors. This review sheds light on how plants respond to environmental stresses by focusing on recent findings on the role of SUMO E3 ligases, contributing to a better understanding of how plants react at a molecular level to such stressors. Plants respond to stresses like salt, drought, cold, heat, heavy metals and pathogens by modifying certain proteins using small ubiquitin-like modifiers. This process is facilitated by a class of compounds known as E3 ligases. We provide a comprehensive overview of E3 ligases and their substrates associated with biotic and abiotic stresses, elucidating the diverse and complex mechanisms by which this pathway facilitates plant survival under stress conditions. These essential insights are crucial for comprehending plant molecular reactions to such stresses.This article belongs to the Collection Functional Genomics for Developing Climate Resilient Crops.