Plants are exposed to many types of abiotic stresses during their life cycles, i.e. cold, drought or high heavy metal concentrations in the soils. To minimize the yield loss of cultivated plants caused by unfavourable environment, better understanding of the tolerance mechanisms is needed. The current state of the studies on abiotic stress tolerance suggests the general role of some regulatory factors in the environmental adaptation mechanisms; therefore, it is also possible to find some common QTLs/genes influencing more than one adaptation process. In wheat QTLs for frost tolerance (Fr-A1, Fr-A2) and for vernalization requirement (Vrn-A1) were determined on chromosome 5A. Interestingly, QTLs for copper tolerance were localised in the same position as the Vrn-A1 gene, and also in the same position as the Vrn-D1 on the chromosome 5D. The developmental-stage specificity of QTLs for abiotic stress tolerance was shown by testing drought tolerance in barley. The results revealed that the most effective QTLs for drought tolerance in seedling-, young plant- and mature-stage are different; however, a common QTL with lower effect was also determined in each developmental phase.