Climate Change is Making Plants More Vulnerable to Disease. New Research Could Help Them Fight Back
Published:30 Jan.2023 Source:Duke University
When heat waves hit, they don't just take a toll on people -- the plants we depend on for food suffer too. That's because when temperatures get too high, certain plant defenses don't work as well, leaving them more susceptible to attacks from pathogens and insect pests.
Now, scientists say they have identified a specific protein in plant cells that explains why immunity falters as the mercury rises. They've also figured out a way to reverse the loss and bolster plant defenses against the heat.
It turned out that many of the genes that were suppressed at elevated temperatures were regulated by the same molecule, a gene called CBP60g.
The CBP60g gene acts like a master switch that controls other genes, so anything that downregulates or "turns off" CBP60g means lots of other genes are turned off, too -- they don't make the proteins that enable a plant cell to build up salicylic acid.
The team was able to show that mutant Arabidopsis plants that had their CBP60g gene constantly "switched on" were able to keep their defense hormone levels up and bacteria at bay, even under heat stress.