MEMÓRIA DE PLANTAS AO ESTRESSE HÍDRICO

Abstract

Plants are continually exposed to environmental changes, and water stress is one of the critical factors that affect their development and productivity. In recent decades, understanding of how plants perceive environmental signals has evolved, revealing that plants possess the ability to develop an exposure "memory", allowing them to respond more efficiently to similar future events. This encompasses the mechanisms that convert environmental stress signals into cellular signaling pathways and genetic transcription networks, mediated by epigenetic, physiological and metabolic changes. Through prior exposure to a triggering factor, for a plant adaptation response to biotic or abiotic stresses that may occur later, Priming has been proposed as the basis for stress memory in plants. This priming-induced memory may persist in the current generation or even in progeny. The importance of stress memory in increasing tolerance to abiotic stress is well established in several cultures, and the ability of plants to retain stress-related memories has been associated with several plant mechanisms such as morphological and molecular changes, which help in plant adaptation. to drought, such as modifications in histones and DNA methylation, regulation of stomatal closure and accumulation of osmoprotective compounds. Therefore, to understand the changes in plants, aiming to create an alternative to help reduce problems, this review, with a broad approach, sought to highlight the foundations of water stress memory in plants.