Plant mitochondria under a variety of temperature stress conditions

Abstract

The biogenesis of plant mitochondria is a multistep process that depends on a concerted expression of mitochondrial and nuclear genes. The balance between different steps of this process, embracing various fluctuations in mitochondrial transcriptome and proteome, may be affected by diverse temperature treatments. A plethora of genes with altered expression during the acting of these stimuli were identified and their expression characterized, including those encoding for classical components of energy dissipating system. Selected aspects of current interest, regarding the functioning of plant mitochondria under cold and heat stresses, are highlighted.

Keywords: Cold stress; Heat stress; Mitochondrial response; Proteome; Transcriptome; Ultrastructure.