Researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology find that plants adapt to heat stress via an epigenetic memory mechanism, where JUMONJI proteins control small heat shock genes.
Researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology find that plants adapt to heat stress via an epigenetic memory mechanism, where JUMONJI proteins control small heat shock genes.
"If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen," as the old saying goes. But for organisms that can't leave the proverbial kitchen when things get too hot, there's another way: researchers from Japan have discovered that plants can gain heat tolerance to better adapt to future heat stress, thanks to a particular mechanism for heat stress 'memory'.
In a study published in Nature Communications, researchers from Nara Institute of Science and Technology have revealed that a family of proteins that control small heat shock genes enables plants to 'remember' how to deal with heat stress.
Climate change, especially global warming, is a growing threat to agriculture worldwide. Because plants can't move to avoid adverse conditions, such as potentially lethal high temperatures, they need to be able to deal with factors such as heat stress effectively to survive. Therefore, improving the heat tolerance of crop plants is an important goal in agriculture.
Read more at Nara Institute of Science and Technology
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