They say in Texas, “If you don’t like the weather, wait 10 minutes and it will change.”  With days that range from 30 degrees to 80 degrees in the winter months, I may have my heat running at full force on a Monday, and then the air conditioner blasting by Friday; but how does this rapidly changing weather affect plants that lack the ability to simply adjust a thermostat?

According to researchers from the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom, plants actually feel changes in the temperature and respond by activating and deactivating genes.  Through a specialized histone protein, H2A.Z, plants wrap their DNA into a tightly packed structure known as a nucleosome, and when the plant senses an increase in the temperature, H2A.Z histones will permit a progressive unwrapping of DNA.

A nucleosome, similar to a compacted ball of string, restricts access of transcription factors to certain DNA sites; therefore, plants experiencing higher temperatures, coupled with an unwrapping of DNA, will have greater gene expression.

With a better understanding of temperature sensitivity in plants, researchers aim for creating temperature-resistant crops.   Scientist Phillip A. Wigge suggests the growing world population will mean that average crop yields need to increase by 70 to 100 percent in the next 100 years; thus, engineering a temperature-proof plant with controllable histones would allow for the development of more resilient crops.

Discussion Question: How might temperature-resistant plants positively and/or negatively affect the environment?

News Article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100107132543.htm

Paper Abstract: http://www.jic.ac.uk/staff/philip-wigge/web-content/papers/Wigge%20(COPB_temperature)%2005.pdf