Does the alternative respiratory pathway offer protection against the adverse effects resulting from climate change?

Abstract

Elevated greenhouse gases (GHGs) induce adverse conditions directly and indirectly, causing decreases in plant productivity. To deal with climate change effects, plants have developed various mechanisms including the fine-tuning of metabolism. Plant respiratory metabolism is highly flexible due to the presence of various alternative pathways. The mitochondrial alternative oxidase (AOX) respiratory pathway is responsive to these changes, and several lines of evidence suggest it plays a role in reducing excesses of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) while providing metabolic flexibility under stress. Here we discuss the importance of the AOX pathway in dealing with elevated carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), ozone (O3), and the main abiotic stresses induced by climate change. ; This work is supported by the DST-DAAD exchange program between KJG and ARF. This work in the KJG lab is partly supported by a Ramalingaswami Fellowship and IYBA from the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. IFS has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 753301. ; Peer reviewed