Plants feel the heat: How a protein 'thermometer' helps plants adapt to climate
Plants continuously adapt to environmental changes, and temperature is a key signal for growth and flowering. How plant thermometers, or "thermosensors," work at the molecular level is not well understood.
Scientists have uncovered how plants sense and react to temperature changes, a crucial factor in adapting to climate shifts. A protein called COP1 acts as a "thermosensor" within plant cells, regulating growth and development by responding to temperature. At cooler temperatures, COP1 remains in a closed, less active form, blocking the action of other proteins that promote growth.
However, as temperatures rise, COP1 undergoes a structural change, becoming more open and allowing it to interact with other proteins, thereby signaling the plant to grow. The ability of COP1 to change shape in response to temperature is crucial for plants to adapt to their environment. Researchers found that natural variations in the COP1 protein sequence can affect how sensitive plants are to temperature changes.
By modifying specific regions of the COP1 protein, scientists can control how plants react to temperature variations, which could help develop crops that are more resilient to climate change. These findings provide valuable insights into how plants process temperature information and could lead to the development of crop varieties better suited to changing climatic conditions.
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