Abiotic stresses, including drought, salinity, extreme temperature, and pollutants, are the main cause of crop losses worldwide. Novel climate-adapted crops and stress tolerance-enhancing compounds are increasingly needed to counteract the negative effects of unfavorable stressful environments. A number of natural products and synthetic chemicals can protect model and crop plants against abiotic stresses through induction of molecular and physiological defense mechanisms, a process known as molecular priming. In addition to their stress-protective effect, some of these compounds can also stimulate plant growth. Here, we provide an overview of the known physiological and molecular mechanisms that induce molecular priming, together with a survey of the approaches aimed to discover and functionally study new stress-alleviating chemicals.

非生物胁迫，包括干旱，盐分，极端温度和污染物，是全世界作物损失的主要原因。为了抵消不利的压力环境带来的负面影响，越来越需要新型的适应气候变化的农作物和增强抗逆性的化合物。许多天然产物和合成化学物质可以通过诱导分子和生理防御机制（称为分子启动）来保护模型和农作物免受非生物胁迫。除了它们的压力保护作用外，其中一些化合物还可以刺激植物生长。在这里，我们提供了诱导分子引发的已知生理和分子机制的概述，以及旨在发现和功能研究新的缓解压力的化学物质的方法的概述。