Essay On Arabidopsis Thaliaa

The poem “Thanatopsis” by William Cullen Bryant reveals a very unusual aspect of nature. While most people think of nature as beauty and full of life, Bryant takes a more interesting approach to nature. He exposes a correlation between nature, life, death, and re-birth. Using nature as a foothold, Bryant exercises methods such as tone, setting, and imagery in a very intriguing way while writing “Thanatopsis.”

Many species of plants host microorganisms living inside the plant forming a mutually beneficial endosymbiosis. Bacteria or fungi that reside within plant tissue (roots, stems, and/or leaves) are referred to as endophytes. These endophyte communities may help to improve a plant’s fitness by promoting growth, protecting against disease, or facilitating nutrient acquisition. More specifically, endophytes within the plant community can help plants respond to stress that develops from biotic or abiotic influences like pests, heat, drought, saline, and soil conditions (Russell et al., 2003) Endophytes can help plants become better able to tolerate stress by allocating resources from one place to another (Rodriguez et al., 2009). Therefore,

Robert Deal from Emory University is studying to learn about plants and their memory of stress. When plants face dry weather, their stomata shrink to reduce water loss. When a similar situation places the plants under stress again, the plant seems to recall this experience and recovers quicker. Robert Deal, who studies genetics and biochemistry, hopes to utilize this trait and pinpoint its gene. If he can locate and activate the genetic material associated with this memory, he believes he can speed up the process and cause plants to have the gene activated at all times, allowing the plants to withstand drier and warmer temperatures.

The immune system of Arabidopsis thaliana can be divided into two lines of defence. Initially, pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) on the cell membrane detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), which leads to PAMP-triggered immunity (PTI) associated with basal resistance that defends the plant cell from less adapted pathogens (Jones and Dangl 2006). Pathogens that are able to surmount this initial immune response do so through the use of virulent effector molecules that inhibit and suppress PTI, which, in turn, activates the second line of defence, effector-triggered immunity (ETI) (Jones and Dangl 2006). ETI is achieved through the expression of numerous genes involved in disease resistance (R genes) that subsequently encode nucleotide binding-leucine rich repeat (NB-LRR) proteins that each recognizes specific effectors, which ultimately results in increased basal resistance and possibly apoptosis in the case of a hypersensitive response (HR) (Jones and Dangl 2006). The enhanced disease susceptibility1 (EDS1) gene is a crucial component of ETI, as its gene product serves as a signaling intermediary between this initial

Auxins is one of the five major classes of plant hormones. The functions of auxins include elongation of the stem, as well as promoting root growth, and another function includes acting in phototropism and gravitropism. Phototropism is essentially response to a light stimulates; gravitropism is response to gravity. Plants have the capacity to detect light and sense gravity. The cells furthest from the light have auxin which reacts to phototropism. The plant furthest from the light will have elongated cells. The auxin hormones bind to plasma membrane receptors, this will activate the proton pump. This proton pump will diffuse hydrogen ions out of the cell which in turn has many effects. The effects include the cell wall loosening, the turgor pressure of the cell will increase because water is entering the cell, and the cells will enlarge.

The traits of being mobile or stationary has effected how these two supergroups respond to stimuli in their environments. Both plants and animals may be affected by similar biotic and abiotic stimuli such as environmental stresses, sunlight,

As is relevant plants can adapt quickly to stressful conditions. Oak trees create a deep taproot in search of water, along with a very broad lateral root system to help stabilize the tree in high winds. In pines, the needles have a long, slender shape reducing leaf area, which in turn reduces the amounts of water vapor escaping the leaf. Plants are able to strengthen their defenses by preserving memories of stress to enable stronger and more rapid responses if the same type of stress were to reoccur. Plant memory, in particular epigenetic memory, is speculated to complement genetic selection by providing means to adapt, increasing acclimation and even adaptations. (Crisp 2016) In the article reconsidering plant memory: Intersections between

Corsican hares prefer bushy areas with alternating clearings and not close to sea level. They may also live by cropland, Mediterranean vegetation, and forests. Italian hares are nocturnal, foraging in the night, and staying in the home during the day.

Cytokines and Gibberellins are known as two of the five major plant phytohormones acknowledged to contain a major impact on plant growth. They regulate plant growth and respond to environmental stress conditions. Cytokines hormone plays a role in the promoting of shoot initiation, the development of plant organs, and plant cell differentiation. The roles of gibberellins include stimulation of stem elongation, germination, seed dormancy, and the maturation of fruit and flowers. The phytohormones are customized, delivery or converted, which gives plants the ability to grown and respond against stress environments. Gibberellins have recently been discovered to be one of the main hormones that respond against abiotic stress such as wind and drought. Low levels of gibberellins have controlled plant growth restriction. This allowed plants to use their resources at a more conservative level in times of cold weather and salinity increase. On the other hand, increasing gibberellins levels allows plant to respond to plant growth allowing it to escape shady conditions and reach light. However, despite the acknowledgements of those two plant hormones in relation to regulation of plant growth, environmental stress will negatively impact the

Drought resistant meaning a plant that can lose 80% of its water and regenerate and continue growing when moisture is present. We can achieve this by implementing resurrection plant genes into the world’s current plants. Flowering plants or scientifically known as angiosperms are plants that have flowers, and produce a seed within a carpel. Angiosperms are a big group of plants, most trees, grasses, shrubs and herbaceous plants are all under that angiosperm family. The first flowering plants were dated to be from around one hundred and sixty million years ago. All angiosperm plants have a common ancestor. Meaning that all angiosperm plants evolved from a single common ancestor which they inherited much of their biochemistry from. The common ancestor is the link in the genetic codes between its far off modern day angiosperm decedents. The genes for surviving severe desiccation are usually only expressed when a plant is in the seed. It is commonly known that seeds are built to survive extreme environments. They are also almost non reliant on water, only needing to retain 8%-10% of moisture. Only resurrection plants retain the expression until maturation. By using these genes that are already present in the plant but just not expressed while in adult form, we will be able to produce a new species of crop that are drought resistant staple foods. This will not be the cure to all of the world’s hunger, but it will effectively move us one step closer to

Therefore, it is the overall aim of my PhD project to gain insight into the in planta functions of HMGA proteins. The project will be performed in the laboratory of Prof. Dr. K.D. Grasser (Regensburg University), whose research group is specialised on studying plant chromosomal proteins. Towards the goal of elucidating HMGA function, a variety of experimental approaches will be employed using as central tool Arabidopsis plants with altered levels of HMGA protein that will be analysed in comparison to wild type control plants. The available data suggest that HMGA proteins as cofactors assist the proper transcription of putative target genes (Grasser, 2003; Klosterman and Hadwiger, 2002). To evaluate this assumption, (1) we intend to examine plants that have reduced amounts of HMGA (T-DNA insertion mutants, amiRNA plants) as well as plants that have elevated levels of HMGA (overexpression plants). Using these plants we will analyse (2) the consequences of altered HMGA levels on plant phenotype and transcriptome. In addition, (3) the spatial and temporal expression pattern of HMGA is examined as well as (4) protein interactions of HMGA.

During severe desiccation periods, plant lose all the available protoplasmic water. This loss of water causes structural stress as decreased cell volume places tension on the plasmalemma as it shrinks form plasmadesmatal attachments to the cell wall, the ultimate rupture of which allows entry of extracellular hydrolases and cell death (Jill F. 2016).

To understand the timing of FLC activation in embryogenesis, the author first examine when FLC is reactivated using an FLC:: GUS reporter line. They found that FLC expression was activated in pro-embryo within 1 day after pollination and onwards from both non-vernalized parental plants and vernalized parental plants, despite that FLC expression is lower from vernalized plants than that from none-vernalized plants. These results were further confirmed by in situ mRNA hybridization. Then the author postulated that LEC1, a master embryo transcription factor and expressed in the pro-embryo and throughout embryogenesis, is a good candidate required for embryonic de novo FLC activation. To support their hypothesis, the author first introduced loss of function null lec1 allele in FRI-Col and found that this FLC-dependent later flowering phenotype was suppressed. Next, they crossed lec1 with FLC:: GUS line and found that FLC expression was suppressed in the pro-embryo stage and onwards. These results suggest that LEC1 reactivate FLC expression in early embryogenesis and onwards in non-vernalized plants. To explore whether LEC1 could reactivate FLC expression after parental vernalization, the FLC expression was traced for two generations in LEC1/lec1 seedlings by FLC-GUS reporter. FLC was fully activated in LEC1/lec1 before cold and silenced after vernalization, and the

There are several essential factors that contribute to the quality of life society enjoys today. One of these factors is the ability to produce crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and several others. On occasion these crops experience stressors. These stressors can be from abiotic or biotic factors. Biotic stressors mainly include insect herbivores, whereas abiotic stressor mainly include temperature and water or lack thereof. It is vital to understand how crop react to these stressor in order to predict and possibly contradict the effect on the crops. When dealing with insect herbivores the outcome can be devastating. Insects can destroy large amounts of crops. To prevent insects from destroying crop, insecticides are used as well as transgenic crops are used. Abiotic factors such as drought can be more difficult. The total amount of semi-arid land on earth is one-third, and the rest of the land experiences unexpected drought occasionally (Fang and Xiong, 2015). This means that nearly all the crops in the world are at risk of experiencing some kind of water shortage. Due to these abiotic and biotic stressors, and extensive amount of research has been conducted and is still being conducted to minimize the negative effects. In the following sections will be an overview of the abiotic and biotic factors along with the crops response to each, as well as the genetic mechanisms studied to improve a crops ability to cope with these stressors.

All plants are subjected to a multitude of stresses throughout their life cycle. Depending on the species of plant and the source of the stress, the plant will respond in different ways. When a certain tolerance level is reached, the plant will eventually die. When the plants in question are crop plants, then a problem arises. The two major environmental factors that currently reduce plant productivity are drought and salinity (Serrano, 1999), and these stresses cause similar reactions in plants due to water stress. These environmental concerns affect plants more than is commonly thought. For example, disease and insect loss typically decrease crop yields by less than ten percent, but severe