What can we learn from the ecophysiology of plants inhabiting extreme environments? From ‘sherplants’ to ‘shercrops’

In the 19th century it was proposed that ecophysiology was best studied in regions with extreme climatic conditions. In the present perspective, we argue that perhaps this is more timely than ever. The main reason is the need to improve crops to be simultaneously more productive—due to the increased population—and more stress tolerant—due to climate change. Climate change induces plants to face not just harsh but also ‘unexpected’ (unpredictable) climatic conditions. In this sense, we hypothesize that ‘sherplants’, namely plants living in the extremes of plant life (e.g. hot deserts, Arctic and Antarctica, or high elevations) can provide cues on how to break the trade-off between productivity and stress tolerance, as they need to be produced quickly due to the very short growing period while being stress tolerant due to the harsh and unpredictable climate endured during most of the year. We present glimpses of results from three consecutive projects developed over the last 10 years, in which hundreds of species from different regions of the world have been studied. In particular, we propose a pathway for developing ‘shercrops’ learning from ‘sherplants’, debate whether some of the already studied species may have really broken the aforementioned trade-off, and present a number of interesting unforeseen discoveries made when studying plants from extreme climates.

Instituto de Fisiología y Recursos Genéticos Vegetales

Fil: Flexas, Jaume. Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). Instituto de Investigaciones Agroambientales y de Economía del Agua (INAGEA). Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions; España

Fil: Fernie, Alisdair R. Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology; Alemania

Fil: Usadel, Björn. Heinrich Heine University. Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Institute for Biological Data Science; Alemania

Fil: Usadel, Björn. Institute for Bio- and Geosciences-4; Alemania

Fil: Alonso-Forn, David. Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). Instituto de Investigaciones Agroambientales y de Economía del Agua (INAGEA). Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions; España

Fil: Ardiles, Victor. Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). Instituto de Investigaciones Agroambientales y de Economía del Agua (INAGEA). Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions; España

Fil: Ardiles, Victor. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural. Interior Parque Quinta Normal. Área de Botánica; Chile

Fil: Ardiles, Victor. Instituto Chileno de Campos de Hielo; Chile

Fil: Ball, Marilyn C. Australian National University. Research School of Biology. Plant Science Division; Australia

Fil: Ballesteros, Daniel. Universitat de València. Botany and Geology Department; España

Fil: Ballesteros, Daniel. Royal Botanic Gardens. Seed and Stress Biology, Trait Diversity and Function; Reino Unido

Fil: Bravo, Leon. Universidad de La Frontera. Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Medioambiente. Departamento de Ciencias Agronómicas y Recursos Naturales. Laboratorio de Fisiología y Biología Molecular Vegetal; Chile

Fil: Brodribb, Tim J. University of Tasmania. School of Biological Sciences; Australia

Fil: Carriquí, Marc. Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). nstituto de Investigaciones Agroambientales y de Economía del Agua (INAGEA). Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions; España

Fil: Ergo, Veronica Vanesa. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Fisiología y Recursos Genéticos Vegetales; Argentina

Fil: Ergo, Veronica Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Unidad de Estudios Agropecuarios (UDEA); Argentina

Fil: Gago, Jorge. Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB). Instituto de Investigaciones Agroambientales y de Economía del Agua (INAGEA). Research Group on Plant Biology Under Mediterranean Conditions; España