This course will provide basic information on the reactions of plants to environmental stress factors. Lecture topics will include crop productivity under stress; gene expression in response to stress and development of transgenic plants with elevated stress tolerance; adaptation of the photosynthetic apparatus to stress conditions; drought and salinity stress; high light and heat stress; low temperature and freezing stress; mineral nutrient deficiency and heavy metal toxicity; root responses to mineral deficiencies and toxicities; phytoremidation; responses to plant pathogens; flooding and oxygen deficiency. A special attention will be given to synthesis and detoxification of oxygen free radicals and oxidative cell damage under stress conditions.