Study reveals how plants decide between life and death

[Grim Reaper 6]

Pastor-Cantizano had been working to identify a gene in the model plant Arabidopsis that could control the plants response to stressors, which can lead to the plant's death. She and her collaborators had identified a protein in Arabidopsis that seemed to control whether a plant would live or die under stress conditions.

Having identified the gene was just the beginning of the story, despite being years into the journey. It would take five more years to get to this new paper.

The researchers discovered that the proteins BON-associated protein 2, or BAP2, and inositol-requiring enzyme 1, or IRE1, work together when dealing with stress conditions—a matter of life and death for plant cells.

Understanding how these proteins function can help researchers breed plants that are more resilient to death conditions..

https://phys.org/news/2024-08-reveals-life-death.html