The role of cellular membranes as temperature sensors in the regulation of heat-shock protein synthesis in plants
Abstract
Adverse environmental conditions can severely impair essential physiological functions thereby inhibiting growth and development of plants. To prevent profound irreversble injury, plants immediately start to exert several responsive mechanisms upon exposure to stress. Responses to stress take place at different levels of a plant and have to interact to be successfull in stress defence. Under high-temperature conditions (heat stress), the pronounced synthesis of special proteins, the so-called heat shock proteins, is a particularly important adaptive response at the molecular level to maintain basic processes of metabolism and contributes to a great extent to the acquisition of thermotolerance in plants. Therefore, it is necessary to elucidate all processes which are involved in the induction and regulation of the synthesis of heat-shock proteins to understand the mechanisms which lead to the development of thermotolerance in plants. Until now, mainly the molecular control of the transcription of heat shock genes has been investigated, whereas no conclusion has been reached concerning the mechanism how plants sense elevated ambient temperatures and transmit the temperature signal. In this project, we intend to investigate whether changes in important properties of cellular membranes (membrane fluidity and membrane potential) might be the initial events following an increase in ambient temperature which induce a signal transduction cascade that finally activates the synthesis of heat-shock proteins.
keywords heat stress temperature sensor cell culture Nicotiana tabacum heat shock proteins cellular membranes
Publikationen
Project staff
Helga Königshofer
Ao.Univ.Prof.i.R. Dr.phil. Helga Königshofer
hkoenig@boku.ac.at
Project Leader
01.01.2004 - 31.12.2004
Hansgeorg Löppert
Ao.Univ.Prof.i.R. Dr.phil. Hansgeorg Löppert
hans-georg.loeppert@boku.ac.at
Project Staff
01.01.2004 - 31.12.2004