Membrane fluidity and the perception of environmental signals in cyanobacteria and plants

Photosynthetic organisms, namely, plants and cyanobacteria, are directly exposed to changes in their environment and their survival depends on their ability to acclimate to such changes. Several lines of evidence suggest that temperature stress, such as unusually low or high temperatures, and osmotic stress might be perceived by plants and cyanobacteria via changes in the fluidity of their cell membranes. The availability of techniques for gene-targeted mutagenesis and gene transfer, as well as for the analysis of genomes and transcripts, has allowed us to examine and evaluate this hypothesis and its implications. In this review, we summarize recent studies of the regulation of gene expression by changes in the extent of unsaturation of fatty acids and membrane fluidity, and we present a discussion of the induction of gene expression by environmental stress and of sensors of environmental conditions and relationships between their activity and the fluidity of membranes in cyanobacteria and plants.