Two studies from the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology published in PNAS show how plants respond to changing environments

摘要

The laboratories of Dr. Shih-Long Tu and Dr. Paul Verslues, both Assistant Research Fellows at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology, have recently reported new mechanisms by which plants detect and adapt to changes in light and water abundance, two key environmental factors controlling plant growth. Both studies were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) in May. Light, water and appropriate temperature are basic requirementsfor plant growth. The prospect of global climate changes impacting light, temperature and precipitation patterns have made plant environment-interaction an important topic in plant science worldwide. The Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology (IPMB) has several research groups focused on plant response to changing environments with the goal of understanding how changing environments affect plant growth. In the present studies, Dr. Shih-Long Tu reported that a new enzyme named phycourobilin synthase (PUBS) can synthesize an alternative chromophore (a compound that absorbs light) to regulate phytochrome (a photoreceptor which binds the chromophore to sense light) activity.