• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Monday, September 29, 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 Biology

Plants under heat stress must act surprisingly quickly to survive

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 21, 2017
in Biology
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram
IMAGE

Credit: UMass Amherst

AMHERST, Mass. – In new results reported in The Plant Cell, molecular biologist Elizabeth Vierling at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and colleagues in India and China report finding a crucial mechanism that plants need to recover from heat stress.

She points out that high temperature damage to crops is increasing with climate change, and uncovering mechanisms of heat tolerance are important not only as basic knowledge, but for possible future attempts to enhance plants' ability to survive high temperatures.

She says, "One of our most interesting findings is the fact that stressed plants not only need to produce new proteins to survive the stress, they need to make them right away. We found that a delay of even six hours of new protein translation will inhibit optimal growth and reproduction. The plants might not outright die, but they are severely impaired without the rapid synthesis of these new proteins." This dramatic time sensitivity of protein translation was not known before, she adds.

"Plants can't move to avoid unfavorable growth conditions such as insufficient water availability or extremes of temperature," Vierling explains. "When confronted with stressful environmental conditions, you may not see any changes, but in order to survive plants are busily responding, often by synthesizing new proteins in a process called translation."

She adds, "Proteins are major workhorses in all cells. They help capture light for photosynthesis or act as enzymes to produce the sugars in fruits or the components of wood. In unfavorable environments, whole new sets of proteins can be made that provide plants with the ability to counteract stress."

Vierling, who is a Distinguished Professor in the biochemistry and molecular biology department, explains that she and colleagues at the China Agricultural University, Beijing, and the National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Delhi, India, used biochemical and next-generation sequencing methods to examine changes in protein translation and gene expression in wild type Arabidopsis plants and in mutants that have lost their ability to survive high temperatures.

They found that the mutated gene specifies a "translation factor," that is, a protein required by all organisms including humans, to synthesize other proteins. "So we found out more about the general, universal process of protein translation. Ours is the first study of this type investigating this aspect of protein synthesis. It was significant to find that this translation factor is needed for recovery of plants from stress, and that it may have a previously unrecognized role in translating specific proteins."

The protein encoded by the mutated gene, a translation initiation factor called eIF5B, was already known, the biochemist says, but she and colleagues discovered a potential new role for it.

They write, "Through studies in Arabidopsis of a temperature-sensitive allele of eIF5B1 (hot3-1), we demonstrate that restoring translation immediately following heat stress is critical to stress recovery. In addition, translational profiling of a more severe allele (hot3-2) under optimal growth temperatures demonstrates that eIF5B1 is essential for normal growth and development in plants and further suggests that eIF5B may differentially affect translation of specific mRNAs."

###

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and wasmade possible through recent technical advances and new state-of-the-art instruments at UMass Amherst.

Media Contact

Janet Lathrop
[email protected]
413-545-0444
@umassscience

http://www.umass.edu

Original Source

http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/plants-under-heat-stress-must-act

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

Rewrite Cell death in microalgae resembles that in humans this news headline for the science magazine post

Rewrite Cell death in microalgae resembles that in humans this news headline for the science magazine post

September 29, 2025

Cornell Launches Groundbreaking Initiative to Decipher the Science of Menopause

September 29, 2025

Polymyxin B Kills by Energy-Driven Membrane Disruption

September 29, 2025

Omega-3 Fatty Acids Influence Mammary Gland Development and Lipogenesis through Gαs-Driven cAMP–EPAC Signaling Pathway

September 29, 2025
Please login to join discussion

POPULAR NEWS

  • New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    New Study Reveals the Science Behind Exercise and Weight Loss

    86 shares
    Share 34 Tweet 22
  • Physicists Develop Visible Time Crystal for the First Time

    73 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • How Donor Human Milk Storage Impacts Gut Health in Preemies

    57 shares
    Share 23 Tweet 14
  • Scientists Discover and Synthesize Active Compound in Magic Mushrooms Again

    56 shares
    Share 22 Tweet 14

About

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

Follow us

Recent News

New Research Identifies Genetic Variations Associated with Chemotherapy-Induced Liver Injury in Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastasis Patients

KAIST Study Suggests Cancer Cell Nuclear Hypertrophy May Inhibit Tumor Spread

Compressive Stress Influences Bone Cell Growth

Subscribe to Blog via Email

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

Join 61 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.