The most serious challenge facing humanity today is rapidly advancing climate change. These changes are not only limited to increasing the average temperature but also include an increased frequency of extreme weather events, including prolonged drought. Meanwhile, water resources suitable for use in agriculture in the case of Poland are constantly shrinking and are already among the smallest in Europe

(https://pl.boell.org/pl/2020/11/23/woda-w-rolnictwa). All these stress factors lead to a significant reduction in agricultural productivity. Therefore, intensive scientific research should be carried out on the course of drought stress or high temperature affecting crops, which will allow counteracting their negative effects. The Institute of Plant Physiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow (IPP PAS) has been specializing in the subject of such abiotic stresses for years, and the monitoring of hormonal signalling in plants is one of the basic tools of plant stress physiology. Thanks to the use of equipment shared within JLBEC, we perform such analyzes for the needs of IPP PAS, as well as institutions and research teams cooperating with us.

Analytical protocols have been developed in the Laboratory to enable the determination of several dozen different phytohormones, other signal substances, and their precursors and metabolites from one sample. The laboratory has analytical protocols allowing the determination of most of the known phytohormones. The laboratory's expertise is not limited to the determination of the aforementioned phytohormones that regulate the mechanisms of growth and stress in plants, but also antioxidants (tocopherols), soluble sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose, raffinose, kestosis and others), plant pigments (chlorophylls, carotenoids), fatty acids, volatile fragrances, as well as multicyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and much more. All these compounds are determined at the level of their endogenous concentrations.

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The comprehensive capabilities of the laboratory equipment, together with the experience and knowledge of the Laboratory members, allow for the ongoing development of new analytical protocols that are used by IFR PAN and cooperating scientific units.

Stress physiology studies are carried out on agricultural plants, such as legumes (soybeans, lupins, peas), cereals (wheat, triticale, rye) and others (cabbage).