Moss - tolerant to abiotic stresses

 

In recent year a new model plant species, Physcomitrella patens, has emerged. Physcomitrella diverged from higher plants more than 450 million years ago and is highly tolerant to a range of abiotic stresses. Identifying the underlying mechanisms giving this tolerance could supply valuable information on how to improve stress tolerance of vascular plants.

 

In moss several novel genes involved in abiotic stress protection have been identified (Lunde et al., 2007). These genes have apparently been lost during evolution in time periods where they had no selective advantage; however, these ancient genes could however hold solutions for some of problems faced by modern agriculture.

 

Unlike any vascular plants known to date Physcomitrella is able to perform homologous recombination with high efficiency. In addition, the vegetative state of Physcomitrella is haploid and each cell maintains in ability to generate new gametophytes. These features render Physcomitrella a highly efficient model plant in molecular studies and allow the generation of predictable and specific gene knock-outs in one step without the need for whole plant regeneration and crossing. The full genome sequence of Physcomitrella is also available.