I. INTRODUCTION As a consequence of anthropogenic activities and climate change, plants increasingly encounter multiple abiotic and biotic stresses. Abiotic stresses include environmental factors, such as temperature extremes, drought, flooding, high light intensity, altered salinity as well as water, air and soil pollution, while plants experience biotic stresses from root and shoot pathogens, herbivores, and resource competition with other plants (Rennenberg & Simon, 2013).