Ways to adapt to stress

Now that you know the nature of stress, let us see what type of strategies plants have acquired to adapt to stress. You know that biological functions are performed with the help of various kinds of molecules produced in particular tissues and organs. Therefore, it should be possible for an organism to adapt to a change in environmental conditions by correspondingly changing the molecules and/or tissues and organs recruited to perform the affected function. At their extremes, many different types of stresses would elicit similar types of response. This may involve repression/derepression of the synthesis of sets of proteins. Many of these proteins regulate the expression of other proteins. Thus, adaptation to stress may be achieved by altering the molecules at work and/or cells and tissues serving a particular purpose. Whatever be the nature of stress, an organism's response has to be in terms of processes and pathways operative in it. Often, visible changes in the morphology and behaviour of plants are also apparent in response to stress. Let us first consider what sort of changes has been observed in molecules of the cell.