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Plants have to be able to adapt to the environment that is always changing. However, as far as we understand, plants are not able to learn, which means that their adaptation to the environment solely depends on the survival of the fittest. However, now scientists from the Universities of Birmingham and Nottingham have found that flowering plants actually sense and ‘remember’ changes in their environment.
Plants do have a memory, just not the kind we’re used to. Plants remember an appropriate time to flower in terms of the end of winter. Scientists know that this mechanism heavily depends on PRC2 proteins, which come together as a complex and switch the plant into flowering mode. However, no one knows how PRC2 proteins work. Now researchers took a closer look and discovered that in the centre of the protein complex there is VRN2 protein, which is very unstable. However, in certain conditions (for example when a plant is flooded and oxygen is low) it does become stable and increases plant’s chances of surviving.
Scientists also found that VRN2 accumulates in the cold, which allows PRC2 to trigger flowering later, when the temperature is already appropriate. Dr Daniel Gibbs, lead author of the study, explained: “VRN2 is continually being broken down when it is not needed, but accumulates under the right environmental conditions. In this way, VRN2 directly senses and responds to signals from the environment, and the PRC2 remains inactive until required”. Now scientists are thinking how this knowledge could be put into some practical use, such as development of new plant varieties, including cereals and vegetables that could adapt themselves to different environmental conditions.
Animals also have the PRC2 protein complex, but do not have an unstable VRN2 protein, which means it is only needed for plants which are more dependent on the environmental conditions. Scientists now want to see why plant’s response to cold is similar to responses to flooding. Ultimately, it should lead to new plant varieties that would be better fit to survive in the era of the climate change. Most importantly, scientists want to understand this mechanism well enough to improve crop production to yield more food.
Plants are astonishing. They don’t have central nervous systems and yet they always now when the spring starts and when the winter comes. These seasons are going to get slightly mixed and scientists are trying to see how we can prepare for that time.