During drought, plants use a signalling molecule known from animals to limit their water loss. The molecule provides them with a kind of memory of how dry the day was.
During drought, plants use a signalling molecule known from animals to limit their water loss. The molecule provides them with a kind of memory of how dry the day was.
"I‘ve been studying how plants regulate their water balance for over 35 years. To find a completely new and unexpected way for saving water has certainly been one of the most surprising discoveries in my life." So says Professor Rainer Hedrich, plant scientist and biophysicist from Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany.
Hedrich's group discovered this new strategy together with researchers from the University of Adelaide in Australia. The results have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
Read More: Universitat of Wurzburg
During drought, the signalling molecule GABA is produced and inhibits the opening of leaf pores (left). If the enzyme GAD2, which converts glutamate to GABA, is genetically switched off, the pores remain open even during drought - the plants lose more water (centre). If the gene for GAD2 is reintroduced into the closing cells, the defect is reversed. The experiment shows that the sphincter cells autonomously perceive stress and react to it with GABA production. (Photo Credit: Rainer Hedrich / University of Wuerzburg)
