Poplars' Volatile Strategy for Staying Cool

Isoprene is a hydrocarbon volatile compound emitted in high quantities by many trees. However, the physiological role of isoprene emission has been the center of scientific debate, as it is quite costly to the plant. 

Scientists from the Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research of the Research Centre Karlsruhe in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany, together with colleagues from the Universities of Braunschweig and Göttingen, in Germany, and British Columbia, in Canada, set out to investigate whether isoprene plays a role in protecting plants from heat stress. To test this hypothesis, the scientists developed GM Grey poplar (Populus x canescens) trees, in which the expression of one of the enzymes required for isoprene production was suppressed by RNA interference (RNAi). The team then submitted both transgenic trees and their conventional controls to repeated “heat shocks”, and measured photosynthetic performance. Their findings, in The Plant Journal, confirm that transgenic poplars are much more susceptible to heat stress, and clearly indicate that isoprenes have an important role in protecting plants from the harmful effects of high temperatures.

Read more at http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/bpl-ief072607.php and  http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-313X.2007.03157.x