Our aim is to understand and
integrate the molecular, biochemical, physiological and ecological responses of
plants in the field to factors of global climate change. This research used Free Air-gas
Concentration Enrichment (FACE) technology to enrich [CO2] and [O3]
to levels predicted for 2050, in a soybean agro-ecosystem. This ecosystem is a
good model for studying plant responses to climate change because it is a
relatively homogeneous growing environment and all plants in the canopy are
genetically identical. This increases the power of the experiment to detect
subtle treatment effects and facilitates investigation of the molecular and
biochemical factors underlying physiological and ecological responses. We used
the Affymetrix soybean microarray to investigate the response of over 37,000
genes to changes in [CO2] and [O3] across the growing
season. A significant challenge of microarray experiments is interpreting the
results in a biologically relevant context. In order to meet this challenge, we
have adapted visualization software originally written for Arabidopsis thaliana. We have also developed high-throughput
biochemical and enzymatic assays to allow analysis of the many samples needed
to meaningfully assess treatment effects given background variation. One
important mechanism by which plants cope with global atmospheric change is the
oxidative stress response. Damage caused at the cellular level by oxidative
stress feeds forward to decrease leaf photosynthesis and therefore canopy and
ecosystem productivity. The antioxidant system consists of enzyme cycles and
metabolite pools that maintain a balanced redox state. Total antioxidant
capacity in leaves increases over the growing season, regardless of growth [CO2]
or [O3]. Changes in the redox state of the ascorbate pool are observed
in plants challenged with elevated [O3]. We are integrating these
results with changes in antioxidant transcripts and enzymes to provide a
mechanistic analysis of the response of the plant antioxidant system to global
change.