The flowers may seem a ‘motif “of plants that possess them, with less importance than other parts of the plant, such as leaves, stems and roots, but they are as important as those other parties because they contain the keys to the survival of flowering plants. In fact, the reproductive success of each plant of this kind depends critically on the precise moment that bloom in spring.
The time of flowering contains a curious phenomenon. Because plants bloom only after a certain number of days of being exposed to cold weather, this indicates that plants remember well how many days have elapsed since the onset of winter with its cold weather.
How exactly do without having a brain or central nervous system, is a mystery to which long has been no convincing and detailed explanation.
In a recent study, the research team Karissa Sanbonmatsu, the US Los Alamos National Laboratory, has obtained new and important information about the “memories” of plants.
A special section of ribonucleic acid (RNA) called COOLAIR is revealing its internal structure and function scientists, showing a striking resemblance to a molecular machine RNA, a feature previously understood was limited to the protein factory of the cell (the ribosome), being beyond the reach of mere strands of RNA.
The COOLAIR controls the timing of flowering plants in the spring, in the sense that note how long the plant has been exposed to cold. When these RNAs are silenced or removed, the plants simply do not bloom.
It is now believed that COOLAIR is a key piece in the puzzle of plant memory.
It seems that COOLAIR is a repressor of a repressor, helping to control the internal sensors that tell the plant that is the time to stop repressing the flowering process, considering that sufficient time has elapsed so that the spring is about to offer ideal conditions for a new cycle. The first is a protein called repressor FLC (for its acronym in English “Flowering Locus C”). This deactivates repressor or inhibitor bloom in autumn and winter. COOLAIR turn represses FLC, allowing it to perform flowering but only after several weeks of exposure to cold temperatures.
