Learning from evolution: Thellungiella generates new knowledge on essential and critical components of abiotic stress tolerance in plants

Amtmann, A. (2009) Learning from evolution: Thellungiella generates new knowledge on essential and critical components of abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Molecular Plant, 2(1), pp. 3-12. (doi: 10.1093/mp/ssn094)

Abstract

<i>Thellungiella salsuginea (halophila)</i> is a close relative of <i>Arabidopsis thaliana</i> but, unlike <i>A. thaliana</i>, it grows well in extreme conditions of cold, salt, and drought as well as nitrogen limitation. Over the last decade, many laboratories have started to use <i>Thellungiella</i> to investigate the physiological, metabolic, and molecular mechanisms of abiotic stress tolerance in plants, and new knowledge has been gained in particular with respect to ion transport and gene expression. The advantage of <i>Thellungiella</i> over other extremophile model plants is that it can be directly compared with <i>Arabidopsis</i>, and therefore generate information on both essential and critical components of stress tolerance. <i>Thellungiella</i> research is supported by a growing body of technical resources comprising physiological and molecular protocols, ecotype collections, expressed sequence tags, cDNA-libraries, microarrays, and a pending genome sequence. This review summarizes the current state of knowledge on <i>Thellungiella</i> and re-evaluates its usefulness as a model for research into plant stress tolerance

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Amtmann, Professor Anna
• Authors: Amtmann, A.
• Subjects: Q Science > QK Botany
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Molecular Biosciences
• Journal Name: Molecular Plant
• ISSN: 1674-2052