Darwish, E., S. U. Rehman, X. Mao, and R. Jing, "A wheat stress induced WRKY transcription factor TaWRKY32 confers drought stress tolerance in Oryza sativa", Asian Journal of Agriculture and Biology, vol. 1, pp. 1-7, 2021.
and Nehad El-Saib, Essam M. Darwish, W. A. A. S. S. M., "Effect of salicylic acid on salt tolerance in Astragalus plants", Egypt. J. of Appl. Sci., vol. 30, issue 6, pp. 180-205, 2015.
Reham M El-Bahbohy, Shady A Mottaleb, E. D. M. R. A. - E. N., "Physiological performance of blue-green algae from fields of Nile Delta region in Egypt", BIOSCIENCE RESEARCH, vol. 15, issue 4, pp. 3081-3091, 2018.
ESSAM DARWISH, SHADY A MOTTALEB, O. S. M. G., "Effect of salt stress on root plasticity and expression of ion transporter genes in tomato plants", International Journal of Botany and Research, pp. 13-26, 2016.
Shady A Mottaleb, Essam Darwish, M. M. G. S., "Phenotyping root system architecture of cotton (gossypium barbadense L.) grown under salinity", Agriculture, vol. 63, issue 4, pp. 142, 2017.
and Mohamed R. A. Nesiem, Essam Darwish, E. G. G. S. F. A., "Comparison study among pollen grains of three date palm males cultivars (phoenix dactylifera L.", J. Biol. Chem. Environ. Sci., vol. 11, issue 3, pp. 263-275, 2016.
Uzma Majeed, Essam Darwish, S. U. R. X. Z., "Kompetitive allele specific PCR (KASP): a singleplex genotyping platform and its application", Journal of Agricultural Science, vol. 11, issue 1, pp. 11-20, 2019.
Gandullo, J., S. Ahmad, E. Darwish, R. Karlova, and C. Testerink, "Phenotyping Tomato Root Developmental Plasticity in Response to Salinity in Soil Rhizotrons.", Plant phenomics (Washington, D.C.), vol. 2021, pp. 2760532, 2021. Abstract

Plants have developed multiple strategies to respond to salt stress. In order to identify new traits related to salt tolerance, with potential breeding application, the research focus has recently been shifted to include root system architecture (RSA) and root plasticity. Using a simple but effective root phenotyping system containing soil (rhizotrons), RSA of several tomato cultivars and their response to salinity was investigated. We observed a high level of root plasticity of tomato seedlings under salt stress. The general root architecture was substantially modified in response to salt, especially with respect to position of the lateral roots in the soil. At the soil surface, where salt accumulates, lateral root emergence was most strongly inhibited. Within the set of tomato cultivars, H1015 was the most tolerant to salinity in both developmental stages studied. A significant correlation between several root traits and aboveground growth parameters was observed, highlighting a possible role for regulation of both ion content and root architecture in salt stress resilience.

Darwish, E., R. Ghosh, A. Ontiveros-Cisneros, H. C. Tran, M. Petersson, L. De Milde, M. Broda, A. Goossens, A. Van Moerkercke, K. Khan, et al., "Touch signaling and thigmomorphogenesis are regulated by complementary CAMTA3- and JA-dependent pathways.", Science advances, vol. 8, issue 20, pp. eabm2091, 2022. Abstract

Plants respond to mechanical stimuli to direct their growth and counteract environmental threats. Mechanical stimulation triggers rapid gene expression changes and affects plant appearance (thigmomorphogenesis) and flowering. Previous studies reported the importance of jasmonic acid (JA) in touch signaling. Here, we used reverse genetics to further characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying touch signaling. We show that Piezo mechanosensitive ion channels have no major role in touch-induced gene expression and thigmomorphogenesis. In contrast, the receptor-like kinase Feronia acts as a strong negative regulator of the JA-dependent branch of touch signaling. Last, we show that calmodulin-binding transcriptional activators CAMTA1/2/3 are key regulators of JA-independent touch signaling. CAMTA1/2/3 cooperate to directly bind the promoters and activate gene expression of JA-independent touch marker genes like and . In agreement, mutants show a near complete loss of thigmomorphogenesis and touch-induced delay of flowering. In conclusion, we have now identified key regulators of two independent touch-signaling pathways.