<br/>Plants respond to heat stress in a number of ways, including the production of isoprene. Isoprene production is linked to reactive oxygen species tolerance and thus reduces cell death. The mechanism for isoprene thermoprotection remains a matter of debate between two prominent hypotheses. The first hypothesis is that the cell produces isoprene to stabilize the membrane inside chloroplasts by rigidifying lipid tails, causing an isoprene-containing membrane at an elevated temperature to have the same physical properties as a membrane at lower temperature. An alternative hypothesis has suggested that isoprene may act as a regulator of protein expression and protein activity, in particular for proteins with a START domain. START domains in plants are lipid binding domains that regulate transcription in the context of membrane reorganization and stress tolerances by binding several small compounds.<br/>In this study, we investigated the influence of isoprene on protein structures and membrane properties using molecular dynamics methods. The membrane model contains a composition of 10 different lipids closely resembling a physiological thylakoid membrane, while the initial protein structures were homology modeled and subsequently refined with replica exchange simulations. After the addition of isoprene to these models the localization of isoprene was dynamically simulated and the resulting changes in properties for protein and membrane were quantified.

Membrane and protein responses to isoprene during heat stress

ACS Fall 2021

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