Plants’ ATP collector found

Using mouse-ear cress, or Arabidopsis thaliana, scientists identified the molecule that pulls ATP into plant cells.

© Malcolm Storey

The molecule that pulls ATP — a universal compound used for energy inside and signaling outside of cells — into plant cells has finally been found.

ATP increases calcium inside plant cells, but how the compound is brought into a cell was unclear. Working with the flowering plant Arabidopsis thaliana, scientists identified two genes, dorn1-1 and dorn1-2, for molecules, or receptors, that pull ATP into plant cells.

The ATP plant receptor is structurally much different from those identified, and well-studied, in animals and probably helps plants adapt to changing environments, researchers report January 16 in Science.

Ashley Yeager is the associate news editor at Science News. She has worked at The Scientist, the Simons Foundation, Duke University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, and was the web producer for Science News from 2013 to 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a master’s degree in science writing from MIT.

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