Research by UoH team published in The Plant Journal (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1365313x)
A group of researchers associated with Prof. S. Rajagopal, Department of Plant Sciences, School of Life Sciences, University of Hyderabad, in collaboration with Prof. A.S. Raghavendra, published recently in “The Plant Journal”, one of the top journals in Plant Sciences. The other authors are: Jayendra Pandey, Elsinraju Devadasu, Deepak Saini, Kunal Dhokne, Sureshbabu Marriboina, Agepati S. Raghavendra and Rajagopal Subramanyam.
The work is on “Reversible changes in structure and function of photosynthetic apparatus of pea (Pisum sativum) leaves under drought stress.” The work focused on the drought in the photosynthesis of Pea (Pisum sativum). The progressive drought is deleterious to the plants, and the biomass yield and production of seeds reduce significantly. The group understood that the Pea plants keep the memory of drought stress and flowers faster in order to finish the life cycle. In this study, the protection mechanism was identified against drought, i.e., one of the crucial mechanisms called non-photochemical quenching (NPQ), and specifically, a PSBS subunit of photosystem (PS) II was increased. Further, specific drought markers were identified, like the light-harvesting complexes (LHCs), and some of the PSI and PSII core proteins were disassembled in drought conditions, whereas these complexes were reassociated during recovery.
The group’s detailed studies show that drought-induced dissociation of thylakoid supercomplexes and these changes were reversible by the de novo synthesis. Further, they identified several marker proteins, transcripts and metabolites differentially expressed in drought stress, giving clues to developing drought-tolerant Pea plants.
For more details, please download the article: DOI: 10.1111/tpj.16034