Stressful times: How do plants regulate their responses to heat and high light?

Few plants live in a stress-free environment. High light and extremes of temperature damage tissues and impair growth, often reducing crop yields. As changes in light intensity and temperature are linked with the transition between day and night plants have linked their stress responses to an endogenous timing mechanism, the circadian clock. This timing mechanism is also extremely sensitive to changes in the environment and the regulation of stress responses enhances survival by predisposing plants to respond to stress at certain times of day, while diverting resources to growth and development when that stress is less likely. We will examine plant responses to pulses of heat and high light over the course of a day using confocal microscopy and determine the genetic traits underlying the differences in response observed. We will also examine plants that have altered circadian systems to investigate how this network of transcriptional and post-translational rhythms can be altered to promote plant survival in our changing climate.