Dispersed components drive temperature sensing and response in plants

Abstract

Plants are highly sensitive to temperature, and climate change is predicted to have negative impacts on agricultural productivity. Warming temperatures, coupled with a growing population, present a substantial challenge for food security and motivate research to understand how plants sense and respond to changes in temperature. Here, we synthesize our current understanding of temperature sensing and response in plants. We outline how temperature cues are integrated into preexisting signaling cascades using inherently temperature-sensitive proteins or processes. This dispersed nature of thermo-sensitive proteins and processes makes distinct signaling cascades sensitive to temperature. This model integrates current knowledge and distinguishes thermosensing from other conventional sensing and signaling mechanisms in plants.