Systems biology of resurrection plants

Abstract

Plant species that exhibit vegetative desiccation tolerance can survive extreme desiccation for months and resume normal physiological activities upon re-watering. Here we survey the recent knowledge gathered from the sequenced genomes of angiosperm and non-angiosperm desiccation-tolerant plants (resurrection plants) and highlight some distinct genes and gene families that are central to the desiccation response. Furthermore, we review the vast amount of data accumulated from analyses of transcriptomes and metabolomes of resurrection species exposed to desiccation and subsequent rehydration, which allows us to build a systems biology view on the molecular and genetic mechanisms of desiccation tolerance in plants.

Keywords: Desiccation tolerance; Early light-inducible proteins; Resurrection plants.

Fig. 1

Overview of available next-generation experimental datasets across resurrection species. The relationship between the land plant lineages is displayed as a tree. The symbols beside each species indicate the availability of published data: genome (black circles), gene expression data (coloured triangles) and/or metabolomic data (green squares). Vascular plants (pteridophytes and angiosperms) are the most broadly investigated desiccation-tolerant species, although the trait is more common in non-tracheophytes. Nonetheless, experimental data for these species are currently restricted to a few families (indicated by grouped branch tips): Poaceae and Velloziaceae (monocots), Myrothamnaceae, Gesneriaceae and Linderniaceae (dicots), and Hymenophyllaceae and Selaginellaceae (ferns and lycophytes)