title: Fructan and its relationship to abiotic stress tolerance in plants.
abstract: Numerous studies have been published that attempted to correlate fructan concentrations with freezing and drought tolerance. Studies investigating the effect of fructan on liposomes indicated that a direct interaction between membranes and fructan was possible. This new area of research began to move fructan and its association with stress beyond mere correlation by confirming that fructan has the capacity to stabilize membranes during drying by inserting at least part of the polysaccharide into the lipid headgroup region of the membrane. This helps prevent leakage when water is removed from the system either during freezing or drought. When plants were transformed with the ability to synthesize fructan, a concomitant increase in drought and/or freezing tolerance was confirmed. These experiments indicate that besides an indirect effect of supplying tissues with hexose sugars, fructan has a direct protective effect that can be demonstrated by both model systems and genetic transformation.
authors.affiliation: USDA and North Carolina State University, 840 Method Road, Unit 3, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. dpl@unity.ncsu.edu
authors.forename: David P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Livingston
authors.forename: Dirk K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Hincha
authors.forename: Arnd G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Heyer
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D055864:Droughts; D005615:Freezing; D005630:Fructans / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008081:Liposomes / Q000378:metabolism; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D015394:Molecular Structure; D030781:Organisms, Genetically Modified; D010944:Plants / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000378:metabolism; D013312:Stress, Physiological
chemical_list: D005630:Fructans; D008081:Liposomes; D011134:Polysaccharides