About the role of trehalose in plants | O vlogi trehaloze v rastlinah

English. Trehalose is an important disaccharide which takes a major role of a stress protector in many organisms, including green algae and lower plants. It has long been thought that trehalose functions in higher plants are marginal and that they have been overtaken by sucrose. In the last years it has been discovered that trehalose takes on a lot of important physiological roles in vascular plants metabolism. It is an important signal metabolite of sucrose availability and maintains sucrose concentrations within an appropriate range. It also contributes to starch synthesis and degradation and to synthesis of organic acids. Trehalose-sucrose nexus was found to be very important in plant interactions with pathogenic organisms and herbivorous insects. Furthermore, trehalose is involved in response of plant to abiotic stressors such as drought, cold, salinity and hypoxia. It contributes in regulation of stomatal conductivity where it interacts with abscisic acid. All this makes trehalose an important primary metabolite which significantly influences plant growth and development such as induction of flowering and stimulation of photosynthesis.

Slovenian. Trehaloza je disaharid, pomemben pri obrambi pred stresom pri mnogih organizmih, vključno z zelenimi algami in nižjimi rastlinami. Dolgo je veljalo prepričanje, da je vloga trehaloze v višjih rastlinah marginalna in da je tu njene funkcije v evoluciji prevzela saharoza. Pred nekaj leti so odkrili, da ima trehaloza pomembne fiziološke funkcije tudi v presnovi višjih rastlin. Je pomemben signalni metabolit, ki uravnava raven in razpoložljivost saharoze, sintezo in razgradnjo škroba ter sintezo organskih kislin. Povezava trehaloze in saharoze je dokazano pomembna pri interakciji rastline s patogenimi organizmi in rastlinojedimi insekti. Trehaloza je udeležena tudi pri obrambi rastline pred abiotskimi stresorji kot so suša, mraz, slanost in hipoksija. V interakciji z abscizinsko kislino sodeluje pri regulaciji stomatalne prevodnosti. Glede na potrjene funkcije je trehaloza primarni metabolit, ki močno pripomore k rasti in razvoju rastline. Takšna primera sta njen vpliv na indukcijo cvetenja in stimulacijo fotosinteze.