On Aug. 28, 2024, the University of Würzburg announced research using newly generated “optogenetic” tobacco plants to investigated how plants process external signals. Since plants can not relocate when attacked they have developed different strategies that are triggered by certain signals from the environment.

For their study, the research teams worked with tobacco plants that carry ion channels that can be specifically switched on with light. With the help of these light-sensitive proteins, which are obtained from algae and microorganisms, the researchers investigated whether the influx of calcium ions or anion efflux-mediated depolarization of the cell membrane is decisive for the plant’s reaction to a certain stress situation. The research findings were published in the journal Nature.