Researchers at the University of Bayreuth and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf have made a remarkable discovery about a previously unknown mechanism in the perception of light and heat in plants. This finding holds significant implications for understanding plant physiology and adaptation to changing environmental conditions, including the effects of climate change. The study, published in the journal The Plant Cell, opens up new possibilities in fields like optogenetics, biotechnology, and basic plant research.
Unwinding the plant perception at molecular level
It is also the peculiarity of plants to be constantly modulating in response to a variety of environmental conditions, not least between day and night when changes are happening in temperature and light. This adaptability is enabled by their molecular-level sensory machinery.
Phytochrome, which acts as a thermosensor and photoreceptor, are key in the process. In most cases, these pigments change from one state to another by absorbing light or changing temperature (which will absorb/release light) and they promote growth when this happens. This involves interaction between phytochromes and other proteins, such as phytochrome-interacting factors (PIFs).
The Yin and Yang of Phytochromes
View Full-TextDespite these previous findings, their contribution to phytochrome-mediated perception of temperature in plants had yet to be completely understood. here, the team of researchers from the University of Bayreuth and Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf realized their breakthrough.
The researchers studied the dynamics of phytochrome B complexation with various PIFs in more detail and examined how temperature and levels of light differentially affect the rates by which complexes form or dissolve. Surprisingly, the complex formation decreased with increasing light intensity of strong continuous red light rather than an increase as would have been expected. The finding that plants can use distinct blue light ratios specifically tuned to different red light intensities and temperatures reveals an unprecedented yet unexplored molecular mechanism underlying how plants could transduce such complex sets of environmental signals into physiological responses.
Future Applications and Implications
Implications of This Study These are helping the researchers clarify how plants work—and how they have changed in ways that allow them to survive higher temperatures due to a changing climate.
Additionally, this work defines new paradigms that can be harnessed to accelerate studies in humanity-related areas of biological research such as optogenetics (e.g. plant phytochromes reprogrammed for precise spatiotemporal control of gene activation and protein production). In addition, it provides a basis for understanding the detailed molecular underpinnings of how plants synthesize and interpret light and temperature signals to adapt their growth and development.
