Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T05:22:13.621Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Environmental control of gene expression and stress proteins in plants

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2010

T. J. Flowers
Affiliation:
University of Sussex
M. B. Jones
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Dublin
Get access

Summary

Introduction

Plants are constantly subject to adverse environmental conditions such as drought, flooding, extreme temperatures, excessive salts, heavy metals, high-intensity irradiation and infection by pathogenic agents. Because of their immobility, plants have to make necessary metabolic and structural adjustments to cope with the stress conditions. To this end, the expression of the genetic programme in plants is altered by the stress stimuli to induce and/or suppress the production of specific proteins which are either structural proteins or enzymes for specific metabolic pathways.

Several problems are addressed in the study of stress-induced proteins: (1) Perception: how does a plant recognise the existence of a stressful condition? (2) Regulation of gene expression: how does the perceived stress signal alter the expression of genes? (3) Function: what are the physiological roles of the stress-induced proteins? Studies designed to answer these questions usually begin with the finding of new proteins in stressed tissues, most likely by gel electrophoretic techniques. This initial observation is followed by purification of the stress proteins, and the cloning and characterisation of their genes. Research on the function of stress proteins has been progressing, although many stress proteins remain unidentified. The least understood process is probably the molecular mechanism underlying the perception of stress signals.

Temperature stress

Due to seasonal changes, almost all plants are affected by temperature fluctuations in their life cycles. Very high temperatures have been reported in many arid zones around the world, and the lack of effective transpiration in plants located in these areas causes the temperatures inside these plants to be significantly higher than ambient (Levitt, 1980). Chilling or subfreezing temperatures are even more common.

Type
Chapter
Information
Plants under Stress
Biochemistry, Physiology and Ecology and their Application to Plant Improvement
, pp. 157 - 180
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1989

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×