engleski

Learning from the past for the future: “living fossil“ plants as model systems for understanding plants response to a changing environment

Theoretical, experimental and modelling studies have all forecasted that rising CO2 will alter the ecological composition of future plant communities and significantly influence humanity’s ability to produce plentiful and nutritious food. Similar events likely occurred in the past and altered the ecological functioning of past ecosystems, which led to the disappearance of certain life forms. But, on another hand, so-called “living fossils” have remained essentially unchanged from earlier geologic times, due to the outstanding resistance/tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Plants respond to stress conditions by changing pattern of gene expression that encode proteins. Furthermore, these proteins control the biosynthesis of metabolites involved in interactions between a given plant and its environment. Thus, examination of the metabolic capabilities that evolved in early plant forms may help us understand how these plants respond to and interact with a changing environment. This may help us predict and prevent adverse effects of climate change on food production. Two good examples of „living fossils “are whisk fern (Psilotum nudum L.) and ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba L.) which are characterized by specific morphology and metabolic profile. During presentation metabolic capabilities and approaches which have been used in the studies of these two “living fossils” will be presented and discussed.

living fossils ; metabolomics ; whisk fern ; ginkgo ; changing environment

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