Figure 1

A schematic model for temperature sensing in plants. Changes in temperature can alter membrane properties and activate a calcium channel. The inward flux of calcium that follows will activate signal transduction events and alter plant metabolism to achieve thermotolerance. Additional temperature-induced changes include alterations in protein stability and exposure of hydrophobic residues of proteins that may trigger ubiquitin in the cytosol and the ER, histone displacement which allows HSFs to bind to DNA, accumulation of ROS and alteration in cellular energy levels, and unfolding of RNA species that could affect miRNA. These pathways will also trigger different signal transduction events and lead to thermotolerance (adapted from Mittler et al.,⁸ 2012).