What Antarctic Plants Can Tell Us about Climate Changes: Temperature as a Driver for Metabolic Reprogramming

• Published in: Biomolecules
• Main Authors: Laura Bertini, Flora Cozzolino, Silvia Proietti, Gaia Salvatore Falconieri, Ilaria Iacobucci, Rosanna Salvia, Patrizia Falabella, Maria Monti, Carla Caruso
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2021
• Subjects: Colobanthus quitensis; differential proteomic analysis; open top chambers; response to stress; temperature changes; Microbiology; QR1-502; Antarctic; Antarctic Peninsula; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11081094; https://doaj.org/article/f1d01468dd814494a19f6ecd603606e1

Global warming is strongly affecting the maritime Antarctica climate and the consequent melting of perennial snow and ice covers resulted in increased colonization by plants. Colobanthus quitensis is a vascular plant highly adapted to the harsh environmental conditions of Antarctic Peninsula and understanding how the plant is responding to global warming is a new challenging target for modern cell physiology. To this aim, we performed differential proteomic analysis on C. quitensis plants grown in natural conditions compared to plants grown for one year inside open top chambers (OTCs) which determine an increase of about 4 °C at midday, mimicking the effect of global warming. A thorough analysis of the up- and downregulated proteins highlighted an extensive metabolism reprogramming leading to enhanced photoprotection and oxidative stress control as well as reduced content of cell wall components. Overall, OTCs growth seems to be advantageous for C. quitensis plants which could benefit from a better CO 2 diffusion into the mesophyll and a reduced ROS-mediated photodamage.