Convergence; plant response to stress (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, July 29, 2015, 18:06 (3197 days ago) @ David Turell

Plants produce GABA in response to stress. Animals use the same molecule in neurotransmission:-http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150729085922.htm-"'By identifying how plants use GABA as a stress signal we have a new tool to help in the global effort to breed more stress resilient crops to fight food insecurity."-"Despite a similar function, the proteins that bind GABA and their mammalian counterparts only resemble each other in the region where they interact with the neurotransmitter -- the rest of the protein looks quite different.-"'This raises very interesting questions about how GABA has been recruited as a messenger in both plant and animal kingdoms," says co-lead author Dr Sunita Ramesh. "It seems likely that this has evolved in both kingdoms separately.'"-Comment: Again, a demonstration of patterns in evolution