Researchers have identified a molecular mechanism that could support crop heat stress resilience by keeping stomata open during high temperatures. The discovery offers new insight into plant cooling, heat resilience and future crop improvement.
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Researchers have identified an evolutionary mechanism that keeps leaf pores open at high temperatures, offering new insight into plant heat resilience and the development of climate-resilient crops.
As climate change contributes to more frequent and intense heat waves, plants face increasing pressure to survive and remain productive. Researchers at VIB, Ghent University, KU Leuven and collaborating institutions have now identified an evolutionary innovation that helps plants cope with high temperatures.
Published in Nature Plants, the study describes a molecular mechanism that allows plants to maintain their natural cooling system during heat stress. The findings could eventually inform efforts to develop crops that are better able to withstand rising temperatures.
Stomata Help Plants Regulate Temperature
Unlike animals, plants cannot relocate when temperatures become too high. Instead, they rely on built-in mechanisms to prevent overheating.
One of the most important involves stomata, the tiny pores found on leaf surfaces. When temperatures rise, stomata can open and allow water to evaporate. This process cools the leaf in a way similar to how sweating regulates body temperature in humans.
Although scientists have long understood the role of stomata in plant cooling, many of the molecular processes controlling their response to heat have remained unclear.
UBP24 Keeps the Cooling System Active
Led by Prof. Ive De Smet of the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology, the researchers discovered a previously unknown pathway that helps stomata remain open during heat stress, according to a press release.
The research included teams led by Prof. Kevin Verstrepen of the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology and Prof. Kris Gevaert of the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology.
Central to the mechanism is a protein called UBP24. High temperatures trigger a modification that stabilizes UBP24. The protein then stabilizes other proteins involved in keeping stomata open, allowing the plant’s evaporative cooling system to continue operating.
Findings Could Support Crop Resilience
Understanding how plants respond to heat is becoming increasingly important as global temperatures rise. The newly identified mechanism helps explain how plants regulate leaf temperature under hot conditions.
Although the research is fundamental, it provides new insight into the biological processes supporting heat resilience and could contribute to future crop-improvement efforts.
“As heat waves become more frequent and intense, understanding how plants naturally cope with high temperatures is more important than ever,” says Prof. Ive De Smet. “By uncovering one of the mechanisms plants use to regulate their cooling system, we gain new insights into the biological processes that help plants remain resilient under heat stress.”
Heat-Responsive Switch Emerged in Vascular Plants
The researchers compared UBP24 across dozens of plant species. They found that the molecular switch allowing the protein to respond to heat emerged in vascular plants at approximately the same time as actively controlled stomatal opening and closing.
This evolutionary change gave plants another way to adjust their response to high temperatures and regulate their cooling systems.
Plants and Yeast Use a Similar Strategy
The researchers also found that a related protein in yeast operates according to a similar principle during heat stress, despite the hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary distance between yeast and plants.
“Finding similar solutions in organisms as different as plants and yeast was particularly exciting,” says first author Shao-Li Yang (VIB-UGent). “It suggests that this is a remarkably ancient and effective way for cells to deal with heat.”
The discovery deepens researchers’ understanding of how plants evolved to withstand changing environmental conditions. It may also help guide efforts to develop crops that are better prepared for increasingly frequent and severe heat waves.
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