A diminished mathematical group of plant life known as “ resurrection plants ” can survive months or even years without water . The research squad of Kobe University ’s Graduate School of Agricultural Science , led by Professor Dr Roumiana Tsenkova , in collaboration with a research group from Agrobioinstitute in Sofia , Bulgaria led by Professor Dr Dimitar Djilianov , made a significant stair forward in understanding how they do it .
Using a pioneer aquaphotomics approach and completely non - destructive way of life of monitoring , the entire processes of drying and subsequent rehydration of one such flora – Haberlea rhodopensis – were compared to the same cognitive operation for its non - resurrection congener . The results show up that during drying , the resurrection plant performs all right restructuring of body of water in its leave of absence , preparing itself for the dry period of time by amass water molecular dimer and water molecules with 4 hydrogen chemical bond , while drastically diminish gratuitous water molecules . This regulating of water construction is thought to be the mechanics of how the plant life preserves its tissue against drying up - induced damages , and provide it to survive in the teetotal state . The discovery that water system structure is important for saving of the plant during drought accent opens up a new direction for bioengineering and improving the drought tolerance ability of plants .
The inquiry article was published in the online edition of Scientific Reports on February 28 at 10AM ( UK time ) .
life-time and water are as such tied together . And yet , among living tool there are some organisms capable to survive prospicient periods without water . They are foretell anhydrobiotic organisms . Among these , a small radical of plant known as “ resurrection plant ” can make it long periods with almost whole desiccate vegetive tissues and recover fast and fully when water is available again . Enormous advancement has been made recently at various floor to throw light on the mechanisms behind desiccation tolerance of resurrection plants . sympathise this phenomenon may help us use targeted genetic modifications to produce harvest flora able-bodied to permit drying up and adapt better to climate changes , in summation to better understanding of the role of water in life .
It is well established that resurrection plants have an raiment of adaptation and mechanisms which help them cope with the effect of dehydration – all the efforts of these version are direct toward protecting the integrity of cellular structures and protection against oxidative tenseness . Little or no tending was paid so far to the role of water , as a partner during desiccation and recovery after severe stress . And yet all these organism , despite produce different protective compounds , have one thing in common – water system . body of water in living organism is a complex molecular ground substance made of a defined number of dissimilar water system molecular structures which are forever being mould by other constituent ( biomolecules ) and environmental influences .
flesh 1 . Haberlea rhodopensis , a resurrection plant species , was used as a model system to study the underlying chemical mechanism of extreme desiccation tolerance
In this research , Professor Dr Roumiana Tsenkova and Professor Dr Djilianov ’s teams studied one of the Christ’s Resurrection plant – call Haberlea rhodopensis . This plant , together with around only 350 works species on Earth , has an ability to survive very long periods of uttermost dehydration , and then quickly , just hours after rewatering , it miraculously recovers to its fully functional , normal , living state .
Using near infrared igniter , in a completely non - destructive way , they monitored the processes of drying up and rehydration of Haberlea rhodopensis works and its proportional non - resurrection plant mintage Deinostigma eberhardtii .
Near infrared spectroscopic analysis and the novel “ Aquaphotomics ” approach evolve by Prof. Tsenkova bring home the bacon perceptivity into the morphologic changes of pee molecules in leaf of the plants and how they change during dehydration and rehydration . And for the first fourth dimension it was observed that the piss structure in the two plant , which are botanically very interchangeable , in fact is drastically dissimilar .
The childlike measurements of water supply content of the leaves revealed that Haberlea rhodopensis readily and very quickly reduces the weewee content to only 13 % , as if it knows that it can go without it ( Figure 2 ) . Deinostigma eberhardtii , on the other hand , tried heavily throughout the dehydration to keep the piss up until the item when it eventually lost the battle ( which is around 35 % of water mental object , after which it can not recuperate ) . However , when the structure of water mote was examined during drying up , it showed marked differences between the plant .
physique 2 . change in the relative water cognitive content ( RWC % ) during drying up and subsequent rehydration in Haberlea rhodopensis ( ♦ ) and Deinostigma eberhardtii ( ◊ ) respectively ( Kuroki , S. et al . body of water molecular structure underpins extreme desiccation leeway of the resurrection plant life Haberlea rhodopensis . Sci . Rep. ( 2019 ) . doi:10.1038 / s41598 - 019 - 39443 - 4 )
When Haberlea rhodopensis was fall behind water , it keep the number of certain water molecular specie – free water molecules , water dimers , trimers and more hydrogen bonded water molecules – in the same ratios ( Figure 3 ) . While the Book of Numbers of these molecules diminish , their kinship was kept constant , suggesting orchestrated exertion by the plant to keep the water in a certain province . Such power was not observed in Deinostigma eberhardtii , and the proportion of urine species in the leaves every which way fluctuate .
chassis 3 . Dynamics of different water species during desiccation and rehydration of Haberlea rhodopensis and Deinostigma eberhardtii . Relative optical density of water mintage in Haberlea rhodopensis ( A ) and Deinostigma eberhardtii ( B ) , during desiccation and subsequent rehydration ( Sr – protonated water clusters , S0 – free water molecules , S1 – water dimer , S2 , S3 and S4 – water molecules with 2 , 3 and 4 hydrogen bond , respectively ) ( Kuroki , S. et al . Water molecular structure underpins utmost drying up allowance of the resurrection plant Haberlea rhodopensis . Sci . Rep. ( 2019 ) . doi:10.1038 / s41598 - 019 - 39443 - 4 )
Drastic differences of the water structure in the leaves were observed when both plant were in the completely dry out Department of State . In this final phase , Haberlea rhodopensis radically diminished destitute water molecules which are very of import for all metabolic processes , and accumulate body of water dimer and water supply atom with 4 hydrogen bonds . Deinostigma eberhardtii , in contrast never show any such extremist transmutation of pee social organization . Up to the very last moment , even in the entirely dry out state it still had a lot of free water system atom , but now involved in despoilation and decay process .
During rehydration , Haberlea rhodopensis showed the same orchestrated dynamics of reorganization of water system anatomical structure , by performing orderly incremental modification of mostly all water species .
This research showed for the first fourth dimension that the structure of urine , not its content , is what matter to the survival of the organism . When mass recollect about life-time , we often associate dynamical feature with the process in living systems . And yet , in this peculiar plant , in the absence of visible signs of ongoing metabolism , reach a specific water system social organization was its survival creature .
As a result , the study performed by Prof. Tsenkova sheds some light on what may be the most fundamental lineament of a living system – it is the structural organization , rather than the dynamics , that is at its Congress of Racial Equality . And the social organization of H2O is shaped by the legion substances produced in the cell . These may be saccharide , amino acids , or other biomolecules , but their final goal is accomplishment of a sure state of water supply molecular anatomical structure which allows the preservation of tissues and prevention of damage .
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