Photosynthesis: ancient, essential, complex, diverse … and in need of improvement in a changing world

Niinemets, Ülo; Caemmerer, Susanne von; Ort, Donald R.; Parry, M. A. J.; Poorter, Hendrik

doi:10.1111/nph.14307

Cited by 29 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Photosynthetic activity is considered the main yield-determining factor, especially in plants exposed to abiotic stresses [ 48 ]. Ribulose-1, 5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (Rubisco) activities are associated with photosynthetic rate-limiting steps, especially under environmental stress conditions [ 48 – 50 ]. A comprehensive analysis of our RNA-seq data revealed that the expression levels of seven Rubisco-related genes were sharply decreased in response to drought stress (see Additional file 5 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of drought stress and water recovery on physiological responses and gene expression in maize seedlings

et al. 2018

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BackgroundDrought is one of the major factors limiting global maize production. Exposure to long-term drought conditions inhibits growth and leads to yield losses. Although several drought-responsive genes have been identified and functionally analyzed, the mechanisms underlying responses to drought and water recovery treatments have not been fully elucidated. To characterize how maize seedling respond to drought stress at the transcriptional level, we analyzed physiological responses and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the inbred line B73 under water deficit and recovery conditions.ResultsThe data for relative leaf water content, leaf size, and photosynthesis-related parameters indicated that drought stress significantly repressed maize seedling growth. Further RNA sequencing analysis revealed that 6107 DEGs were responsive to drought stress and water recovery, with more down-regulated than up-regulated genes. Among the DEGs, the photosynthesis- and hormone-related genes were enriched in responses to drought stress and re-watering. Additionally, transcription factor genes from 37 families were differentially expressed among the three analyzed time-points. Gene ontology enrichment analyses of the DEGs indicated that 50 GO terms, including those related to photosynthesis, carbohydrate metabolism, oxidoreductase activities, nutrient metabolism and other drought-responsive pathways, were over-represented in the drought-treated seedlings. The content of gibberellin in drought treatment seedlings was decreased compared to that of control seedlings, while abscisic acid showed accumulated in the drought treated plants. The deep analysis of DEGs related to cell wall development indicated that these genes were prone to be down-regulated at drought treatment stage.ConclusionsMany genes that are differentially expressed in responses to drought stress and water recovery conditions affect photosynthetic systems and hormone biosynthesis. The identified DEGs, especially those encoding transcription factors, represent potential targets for developing drought-tolerant maize lines.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-018-1281-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of drought stress and water recovery on physiological responses and gene expression in maize seedlings

et al. 2018

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“…It is also supported by phylogenetics, molecular genetics and genomics and, in turn, it can feed larger scale process descriptions, like those related to organismal integration, population dynamics, or any kind of ecosystem-level processes. In addition, and especially through its related high-throughput technology À phenomics À ecophysiology should lead to improve crop productivity and its resource use efficiency, which is among the challenging and most urgent goals for Science in the near future (Niinemets et al, 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A role for ecophysiology in the ’omics’ era

Flexas

Gago

2018

The Plant Journal

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Plant Ecophysiology is the study on how Plant Physiology is modulated by the environment. This discipline could have benefited greatly from the development of the different 'omic' technologies (from genomics to metabolomics). Instead, the overall impression is that ecophysiology and 'omics' have developed mostly independent each other. Here we provide a literature analysis over the past 20 years which fully confirms this view. Then, we review a few examples of studies in which ecophysiology and 'omics' studies have combined to different extents to illustrate the potential benefits from their mutualistic interaction. In addition, we debate on the possibilities of working with plants other than Arabidopsis, which is illustrated with some examples of fascinating plants from extreme environments of the world, what we call the 'sherplants'. Finally, we raise a call to both communities (ecophysiology and 'omics') to integrate these disciplines to enter an 'ecophysiolomics era' to maximize our understanding about plant mechanisms from a multidisciplinary approach.

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“…Our data give evidence that phenotypic plasticity may have been under positive selection and therefore seems to be underpinned by genetics. For instance, photosynthesis genes have been fine-tuned over billions of years due to natural selection (Niinemets et al, 2017 ). The rapid growth of S. japonica and its phenotypic plasticity therefore might be the consequence of evolution to a variable environment that requires rapid growth and morphological plasticity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Genes under Positive Selection Reveals Differences in Evolutionary Adaptation between Brown-Algal Species

Teng

Fan

et al. 2017

Front. Plant Sci.

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Brown algae are an important taxonomic group in coastal ecosystems. The model brown algal species Ectocarpus siliculosus and Saccharina japonica are closely related lineages. Despite their close phylogenetic relationship, they vary greatly in morphology and physiology. To obtain further insights into the evolutionary forces driving divergence in brown algae, we analyzed 3,909 orthologs from both species to identify Genes Under Positive Selection (GUPS). About 12% of the orthologs in each species were considered to be under positive selection. Many GUPS are involved in membrane transport, regulation of homeostasis, and sexual reproduction in the small sporophyte of E. siliculosus, which is known to have a complex life cycle and to occupy a wide range of habitats. Genes involved in photosynthesis and cell division dominated the group of GUPS in the large kelp of S. japonica, which might explain why this alga has evolved the ability to grow very rapidly and to form some of the largest sporophytes. A significant number of molecular chaperones (e.g., heat-shock proteins) involved in stress responses were identified to be under positive selection in both species, potentially indicating their important roles for macroalgae to cope with the relatively variable environment of coastal ecosystems. Moreover, analysis of previously published microarray data of E. siliculosus showed that many GUPS in E. siliculosus were responsive to stress conditions, such as oxidative and hyposaline stress, whereas our RNA-seq data of S. japonica showed that GUPS in this species were most highly expressed in large sporophytes, which supports the suggestion that selection largely acts on different sets of genes in both marcoalgal species, potentially reflecting their adaptation to different ecological niches.

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Photosynthesis: ancient, essential, complex, diverse … and in need of improvement in a changing world

Cited by 29 publications

References 43 publications

Effects of drought stress and water recovery on physiological responses and gene expression in maize seedlings

Effects of drought stress and water recovery on physiological responses and gene expression in maize seedlings

A role for ecophysiology in the ’omics’ era

Identification of Genes under Positive Selection Reveals Differences in Evolutionary Adaptation between Brown-Algal Species

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