Mysterious Survival Skills of Plants After Dark Investigated

Scientists from the University of Aberdeen are investigating how plants instinctively conserve enough energy to stay alive during the night, with the hope that findings can help improve methods of future crop production The research team is working collaboratively with six international partner institutions on the five year study to find out more about this process which is funded by a grant of €5.8million from the European Union.

Dr Oliver Ebenhoeh from the University of Aberdeen’s Institute of Complex Systems and Mathematical Biology, said: “Plants build up starch from the sun during daylight hours, and when darkness falls they use this starch as an energy resource, burning off their supply much in the same way as we would burn oil for energy, for example. It has been known for centuries that plants have an internal clock
which allows them to know instinctively when night time will fall. What we don’t yet understand is the link between this clock and a plant’s metabolism. It is this connection that allows plants to know
how much starch they have in storage when night time falls and to use this starch carefully to ensure they have enough energy to last over the hours of darkness.

“The study will use a common weed found across the northern hemisphere called the Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). This plant is used by botanists worldwide as it is particularly useful in genetic studies.

Our aim is to develop a mathematical model to explain this precise and flexible regulation of energy storage and consumption and to understand the ‘signals’ which are being transmitted between the plant’s clock and its metabolism which enable this process. Our findings using the Thale Cress could then be applied to plants we eat.” Scientists hope their research could have major implications
for improvements in how crops are cultivated in the future.

Dr Ebenhoeh continued: “Plants are a fundamental part of the food chain but in the current climate the competition for land space for crop growth is fiercer than ever. This is due to a number of factors. The
increase in our global population has gone hand-in-hand with a higher standard of living which has seen an increase in the amount of meat being consumed and therefore the amount of land being used to rear cattle and for crops for animal food. The situation becomes even more dramatic with the increase in plants being grown for use in bio fuels and the continued need to preserve areas for conservation purposes.

“Understanding how plants use their energy would potentially allow us to manipulate crop growth so that they are grown more efficiently and cultivation is optimised on the land which is being used for crop
production. A more fundamental understanding of the process by which plants maintain themselves would also allow us to better understand where, and in which climates, we should be planting them
in to optimise their growth.”

The University of Aberdeen is working with the University of Edinburgh; the Scottish Crop Research Institute, Invergowrie; the John Innes Centre, Norwich; the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant
Physiology, Potsdam; Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Zurich; and the Centre de Recerca en AgriGenòmica, Barcelona, on the study.