Researchers identified a crucial mechanism by which plants react to climate.

 

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For plants to survive in a variety of geographical environments and a global climate that is constantly changing, phenotypic plasticity in reaction to temperature changes is essential. The term thermomorphogenesis refers to the dramatic adaptive reactions in plant development, growth, metabolism, and immunity that can be induced by a mild rise in ambient temperature of just a few degrees.

Researchers from UC Riverside have made significant progress in the race to manage how plants react to temperature on a world that is quickly warming. MicroRNAs (miRNAs), which have a variety of functions in plant growth, are crucial to this discovery, but it is unclear whether and how miRNAs are involved in thermomorphogenesis.

 

Meng Chen, a professor of botany at UCR and a co-author of the research, said: "We discovered that plants lack miRNA, which prevents them from growing even at higher temperatures and in the presence of additional growth hormones.

"MiRNA inhibits the making of its goal RNA by encouraging a cleavage in its goal or by inhibiting its target RNA from interpreting into another protein," said Xuemei Chen, a professor of botany at UCR and a co-author of the research.

 

 

The experts decided to use this measure for the incredibly modest temperature rises, from 21 to 27 degrees Celsius. The average room temperature is 20 C for reference. They didn't look at emotional responses. They wanted to test temperature sensors without raising the temperature to the point where the plants would die.

The researchers studied mutant forms of Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant linked to mustard and cabbage, which had incredibly low levels of miRNA. The mutated Arabidopsis would not have responded to the temperature change as it should have without the miRNA.

 

The genetic trial was then carried out, Xuemei Chen said.. We investigated whether we could add more mutations to the mutant Arabidopsis that is incapable of producing miRNAs in order to give it the capacity to detect temperature.

The second trial was successful, and it identified a gene that restores miRNA levels as well as the plant's capacity for heat sensing.

 

The next step was to identify which miRNA molecules, out of the more than 100 possible candidates, are crucial for temperature reaction. They believed the concentrations of the relevant molecules would rise as temps rose, but the opposite was true.

Instead, taking into account the fact that miRNA binds to and inhibits target RNA molecules, the team focused on target RNA molecule amounts that were different between the first mutant Arabidopsis plant and the second mutant plant they created.

 

Looking at this, we discovered that the targets of 14 miRNA had altered, and we also discovered the miRNA alongside the targets, according to Xuemei Chen.

The team was able to build a complete picture of temperature responsiveness once the right miRNA molecules were identified. The two main elements are molecules that sense temperature and auxin, a hormone that enables a reaction to what has been sensed by enhancing plant development.

 

MiRNA is located between the sensor and the response, according to Meng Chen. Without it, plants can feel the heat but are unable to develop in response to it. It acts as a gatekeeper, preventing or enabling plants to adapt to temperature variations in the environment.

"Our discovery connected the dots between three elements that are essential for plants to respond to their environments and are found in all plants."This comprises chemicals that promote plant growth, sensors that track temperature and light variations, and miRNA that regulates plant development.

Reference: techexplorist.com