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Plants, as sessile organisms, are fixed in the soil and are exposed to and must cope with their natural environment to maintain their growth and development.

The environment represents multiple forms of aggression for the plant such as biotic stresses like pathogen aggression or abiotic stresses, like drought or temperature rise. These stresses can occur separately but also in many cases simultaneously throughout the life of the plant.

Temperature is probably one of the major climatic parameters that is expected to fluctuate the most, and increasing temperature has been shown to alter plant immunity. Indeed, a growing number of studies describe that an increase in ambient temperature negatively impacts the majority of resistance sources used by plants, regardless of plant species and pathogen. To date, the number of studies aimed at investigating the mechanisms associated with plant responses under combined stress conditions remains low and a way to address this issue is to study the early mechanisms related to cell signaling that are activated following the perception of a combined stress. It is well known that most external stimuli induce a rapid increase in the level of free calcium in plant cells and that these calcium changes are essential to coordinate adaptive responses.

To be informative, increases in calcium must be decoded and relayed by calcium-binding proteins, also known as calcium sensors, to implement appropriate responses. The aim of this opinion paper is to provide evidence that calcium signaling could be considered as a central integrator of responses to biotic and abiotic stresses.