It's that time of year again when the days are becoming shorter.
Daylight Saving Time ended on Sunday and for many of us, that means dark commutes home and cold, long nights.
For plants, it means less time for photosynthesis, which is critical for survival.
WKAR's Megan Schellong spoke with Tom Sharkey, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University, to discuss his research findings on how plants store food for their future when they sense there's less daylight available.
Sharkey's research was conducted alongside Yair Shachar-Hill, a professor in the College of Natural Science and their team: Yuan Xu and Xinyu Fu, research associates in the MSU Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory, Sean Weise, an instructor in biochemistry and molecular biology and Abubakarr Koroma, a researcher in the Department of Plant Biology.
Interview Highlights
On the relationship between plants and their adaptation to less daylight
I've been fascinated for many years with the interplay between photosynthesis and plant growth. Does growth limit photosynthesis? Or does photosynthesis limit growth? And it's a little bit of both.
On what researchers learned while observing Camellina Sativa
One that is particularly striking is that they saved more energy during the short day as starch so that they could last through the night. It was like saving your food so that you don't starve during the long night.
On plants adapting their daily routine
What we found is that the ability of carbon dioxide to get through the cell and start that process of photosynthesis, the gates were kind of opened up. It's a thing called mesophyll conductance that we measure. And that was surprising to us and really helpful to plants. And that's the thing that, knowing now that we can vary that, we could try to put that into other plants so that they could increase their photosynthetic rate.
Interview Transcript
Megan Schellong:
It's that time of year again when the days are becoming shorter.
Daylight Saving Time began on Sunday and for many of us, that means dark commutes home and cold, long nights.
For plants, it means less time for photosynthesis, which of course is critical for survival.
Tom Sharkey is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University.
He joins us now to explain how plants adapt to less light.
Tom, thanks for joining us today.
Tom Sharkey: Thank you, Megan.
Schellong: How did you first become interested in exploring how plants adapt to less daylight?
Sharkey: I've been fascinated for many years with the interplay between photosynthesis and plant growth. Does growth limit photosynthesis? Or does photosynthesis limit growth? And it's a little bit of both.
And so we looked at a lot of processes in the plant. The only thing that was different is how much light they had. So we had long day plants that got more light, shorter day plants got less light and looked at how they're affected their growth.
Schellong: To learn about how plants adapt to Daylight Saving Time, you focused your research on a specific plant called Camellina Sativa? Did I say it right?
Sharkey: Exactly right, yep.
Schellong: It’s an oilseed crop. Tell us what your team learned by observing this plant? Which you've kind of already alluded to.
Sharkey: There were as many as five processes that were altered when the plants were on short days. One that is particularly striking is that they saved more energy during the short day as starch so that they could last through the night. It was like saving your food so that you don't starve during the long night.
Schellong: Plants have their own scarcity mindset. They're preparing to hibernate almost.
Sharkey: Absolutely. Every day they do. They have a an internal clock, just like we have an internal clock. And so the problems that happened, as a result of the time change on Sunday, plants will have that same kind of a problem.
Schellong: That is so interesting. We are innately tied to plants in a way.
Sharkey: Yes. This internal clock that almost all bigger organisms have, it's fascinating. It's a really important field of study.
Schellong: We're talking about the fascinating acts aspects about your research, what was the most surprising thing your team found in plants ability to make changes to their routines with less daylight?
Sharkey: Well, what we found is that the ability of carbon dioxide to get through the cell and start that process of photosynthesis, the gates were kind of opened up. It's a thing called mesophyll conductance that we measure. And that was surprising to us and really helpful to plants. And that's the thing that, knowing now that we can vary that, we could try to put that into other plants so that they could increase their photosynthetic rate.
Schellong: Now that you have this knowledge of it, what is next? What are the implications for future research?
Sharkey: We need to find out the basis how the plants did that. And then can we improve other plants by teaching them how to do what the short-day plants were doing.
Schellong: That's Tom Sharkey.
He's a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Michigan State University.
He joined us today to discuss how plants are adapting to days with less light.
Thanks Tom.
Sharkey: Thank you, Megan.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.