中文摘要：

作物表皮蜡质作为一种综合抗性指标,在最近几年成为国际上一个研究热点。极长链脂肪酸类物质（VLCFA,Very-Long-ChainFatty acids）及其衍生物是植物表皮蜡质的重要成分,在增强植物抗旱保水能力、提高抗冷性、改良作物品质等方面发挥重要功能。该文介绍了表皮蜡质的主要成分,表皮蜡质和VLCFA在植物抗逆过程中发挥的功能,以及表皮蜡质的合成通路和分子生物学研究进展。

英文摘要：

Cuticular wax is the outermost layer of land plants.As an index of multiple kinds of abiotic stress tolerance,the study of cuticular wax becomes an international topic recently.VLCFA（Very-Long-Chain Fatty acids） and its derivatives are an important component of the plant cuticular wax.They are considered to play an important role to plant drought tolerance and water-holding capacity improvement,cold tolerance and crop quality improvement.The main components of the cuticular wax,the bio-function of cuticular wax and VLCFA in the plant defense stress process,synthetic pathways and molecular biology research progress of cuticular wax were introduced.