What antarctic plants can tell us about climate changes: Temperature as a driver for metabolic reprogramming

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 und...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biomolecules
Main Authors: Bertini, Laura, Cozzolino, Flora, Proietti, Silvia, Falconieri, Gaia Salvatore, Iacobucci, Ilaria, Salvia, Rosanna, Falabella, Patrizia, Monti, Maria, Caruso, Carla
Other Authors: ITA
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2021
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2067/45979
https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11081094
https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/85110630818
Description
Summary: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 CO2 diffusion into the mesophyll and a reduced ROS‐mediated photodamage. no