Casting a critical eye on plant stress research For the benefit of learning

· Flawed evaluation of transgenic plants for drought resistance

· ... and more critique in an e-letter to Plant Physiology

· Plant sterility under drought stress is caused by antioxidant inefficiency?

· What proportion of declared QTL in plants are false?

· Improper measurements of plant water status are still being used

· A response to stress does not necessarily constitute adaptation to stress

· Improper measurements of plant water status are still being used (#2 )

· Drought resistant varieties as an experimental tool to prove a physiological hypothesis – a frequent pitfall

· Irrelevant stress protocols used and reported in genomic research

· Suggesting a physiological selection criterion for drought resistance – need to consider cause and effect