One Stressful Day in the Life of a Plant

Too much water and too little sunlight is stressful for crops. Learning how crops deal with stress is one way of knowing whether crops will survive under certain conditions. Scientists at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), associated with the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U. Leuven), have revealed a new mechanism demonstrating the intricate ways in which plants deal with stress.  

They found that plants use a control system of two kinases (proteins involved in the communication of molecular signals) KIN10 and KIN11 "which react to energy shortages, for example, when there is too little sunlight or too little sugar production". They control the activity of a broad network of genes, promoting the release of energy (known as catabolism) and preventing its assimilation (anabolism). In this way, plants can cope with a really stressful situation. Scientists also observed that overexpression of one of the kinase genes can increase stress tolerance, and allows plants to survive longer. By switching off these genes, their control function is eliminated.  

For the first time, scientists have succeeded in attributing KIN10 and KIN11 a key role in the control of the plant energy budget and metabolism, and thus in the fragile balance between growth and survival.  

Read the complete article at http://www.vib.be/NR/rdonlyres/17268A44-2198-459B-A50F-AA4B6E869151/2349/01082007_ENG_Rolland_KIN10_web.pdf.