• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, October 27, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Acid sensor discovered in plants

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
July 6, 2021
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
IMAGE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

IMAGE

Credit: (Picture: Dorothea Graus / University of Wuerzburg)

Climate change is causing increased flooding and prolonged waterlogging in northern Europe, but also in many other parts of the world. This can damage meadow grasses, field crops or other plants – their leaves die, the roots rot.

The damage is caused by a lack of oxygen and the accumulation of acids. How do plants perceive this over-acidification, how do they react to it? This is what researchers from Würzburg, Jena (Germany) and Talca (Chile) describe in the journal Current Biology.

Biophysicists Dr. Tobias Maierhofer and Professor Rainer Hedrich from the Chair of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics at Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, were in charge of the study.

Anion channel recognises acidification

Everyone is probably familiar with the effect of over-acidification from their own experience: When exercising too hard, muscles are undersupplied with oxygen and acidosis occurs. Muscle pain and poor performance are the consequences.

“In plants, a lack of oxygen also causes acidification of the cells,” says Tobias Maierhofer. The team led by the JMU researcher has now discovered the sensor in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) that perceives the acidification and translates it into an electrical signal. It is a protein in the cell membrane, the anion channel SLAH3.

Super-resolution microscopy clarifies structure

Professor Markus Sauer of the JMU Chair of Biotechnology and Biophysics has developed a microscopy method that can be used to look at proteins in high resolution. With the help of his methodology, the team was able to clarify how the anion channel SLAH3 reacts during acidification.

In the non-active state, the channel is present as a complex of two subunits in the cell membrane. With a lack of oxygen, the acidity and thus the proton content in the cell increases, and protons bind to two specific amino acids of the channel.

“This protonation changes the structure of SLAH3 and the channel breaks down into its two subunits,” explains Maierhofer, who is an expert on anion channels. As single copies, the two units now become conductive for anions, which leads to electrical excitation of the cell membrane.

Mutants react weaker to flooding

The electrical signal in turn triggers further reactions in the plant. Among other things, photosynthesis is reduced. “We assume that this is an adaptation to the flooding stress: the plants switch to a kind of resting state,” says Maierhofer.

The JMU researchers also investigated how Arabidopsis mutants lacking SLAH3 react to flooding. These plants did not try to reduce their photosynthetic output – even though photosynthesis is not possible at all in the muddy, murky flood water where too little light reaches the leaves.

Investigating genetic control during flooding

The anion channel SLAH3 can thus convert an acidification of the cell interior directly into an electrical signal. In this way, it functions like a pH sensor.

Next, the researchers want to investigate how the electrical signal is transported in the plant and translated into a stress-avoiding response. The necessary tools for this, such as pH-insensitive mutants, are available. This makes it possible to study in detail the genetic rerouting of the physiology of plants during flooding.

The results of this basic research could prove significant for agricultural practice: “With the knowledge we are gaining, we can take a targeted approach to breed crops that are more tolerant to waterlogging,” says JMU researcher Maierhofer.

###

Media Contact
Dr. Tobias Maierhofer
[email protected]

Original Source

https://go.uniwue.de/slah3sensor

Related Journal Article

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.06.018

Tags: BiologyBiomechanics/BiophysicsCell BiologyClimate ChangeMolecular BiologyPlant Sciences
Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Cracking the Code of ‘Sticky’ Chemistry: A Path to Cleaner, More Efficient Fuels

Cracking the Code of ‘Sticky’ Chemistry: A Path to Cleaner, More Efficient Fuels

October 27, 2025
blank

Exploring the Role of Water-Soluble Polymers in Wastewater Treatment

October 27, 2025

Dynamic Acoustic Mimicry through Parity Metamaterials

October 27, 2025

Revamped Design for the Electron Superhighway

October 27, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • Sperm MicroRNAs: Crucial Mediators of Paternal Exercise Capacity Transmission

    1286 shares
    Share 514 Tweet 321
  • Stinkbug Leg Organ Hosts Symbiotic Fungi That Protect Eggs from Parasitic Wasps

    310 shares
    Share 124 Tweet 78
  • ESMO 2025: mRNA COVID Vaccines Enhance Efficacy of Cancer Immunotherapy

    197 shares
    Share 79 Tweet 49
  • New Study Suggests ALS and MS May Stem from Common Environmental Factor

    134 shares
    Share 54 Tweet 34

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

Exploring Iron, Aging, and Fibrosis in Endometriosis

Revolutionary CMOS Imager Enables Single-Neuron Brain Imaging

Perspectives on Person-Centered Care in Heart Disease

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 67 other subscribers
  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.