| Abstract Detail
Environmental Physiology Ortmann, Leann [1]. Comparative Thermotolerance in the Genus Boechera . All organisms must possess the ability to tolerate stressful conditions both in their biotic and abiotic environments. Plants, as sessile organisms, have needed to evolve many different mechanisms for surviving abiotic stresses. In particular, plants must have a certain degree of thermotolerance to withstand temperatures beyond those conducive for normal plant growth. Thermotolerance and the heat shock response are largely believed to be governed by the expression of heat shock proteins.
Despite the obvious importance of the heat shock response to all life, the detection of adaptation to heat stress at the molecular level is a relatively new field of study. In particular, there are few studies using plants other than Arabidopsis. This study investigates the comparative thermotolerance in four species that are closely related to Arabidopsis, belonging to the genus Boechera: Boechera lemmonii, Boechera perennans, Boechera pulchra and Boechera sparsiflora. The above species each occupy unique biogeographies, thus it has been hypothesized that they would likely have different ecological amplitudes with respect to heat stress.
By conducting basal and acquired thermotolerance experiments on 7 day old light grown plants, between 38C-44C for periods of 1-5 hours under high(250 μmol m-2s-1) and low light(150 μmol m-2s-1) it was determined that B. lemmonii has the greatest thermotolerance, with B. sparsiflora having a lesser, but comparable thermotolerance, and B. perennans has the least thermotolerance with B. pulchra having comparable but slightly greater thermotolerance. Further studies will be conducted to determine if these phenotypes correlate with the induction of the heat shock response in each species and their respective small heat shock protein evolution.
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1 - San Diego State University, Biology, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA, 92182, United States
Keywords:
Boechera
Thermotolerance
heat stress
HSPs
sHSPs.
Presentation Type: Plant Biology Abstract
Session: P
Location: Exhibit Hall (Northeast, Southwest & Southeast)/Hilton
Date: Sunday, July 8th, 2007
Time: 8:00 AM
Number: P01016
Abstract ID:492 |
