The workshop "Genes and their products for tolerance to physical stresses in plants" was held in Maratea, Italy, from 24-27 September 1995. As one of a series of activity launched by the European Science Foundation (ESF) Network "Cell Stress Genes and their Protein Products," the workshop was the only one entirely devoted to research in the plant field. Around one hundred participants from fourteen different countries enjoyed a lively meeting in an atmosphere of sunny Mediterranean weather. A total of twenty-eight speakers from universities and research institutes were invited to present the most recent results of their research. The workshop was divided into eight sessions, namely heat, cold, salt, drought, oxidative stress, light stress, a conclusive session for recommendations and a poster session. The results reported in this workshop broadly showed the rapid progress made in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying basic aspects of the plant response to environmental stresses.

Identification of differentially expressed genes is one of the major challenges in molecular biology. Several techniques allow the cloning of such sequences. However, methods such as RNA subtraction or differential hybridization are time-consuming and require large amounts of mRNA.
Recently, a new approach has successfully been developed: Differential-Display Reverse Transcription-PCR (DDRT-PCR). This technique has been proven to be highly effective in identifying sequences that are differentially expressed in various cell types. The most striking advantage is, however, that only nanograms of total RNA are sufficient. Thus every mRNA species expressed in the cell system can be investigated, even those present at very low levels.