Balem, J. M., Tan, C., Dias, N. C. F., Arnold, M. L., Tran, S., Severns, P. M., Teixeira, P. J. P. L., Li, C. et al.
The study discovered the molecular mechanism linking evaporative cooling at plant wound sites to tissue repair and developed a method to quantitatively monitor wound healing dynamics.
The molecular mechanisms linking early injury cues to later stages of wound repair in plants were unclear.
A workflow was developed to monitor wound healing dynamics quantitatively, non-invasively, and in real-time by combining thermal imaging, computer vision, and deep learning. Localized low-temperature phenomena at wound sites and cold-responsive gene activation in Arabidopsis leaves were analyzed.
The study revealed that CBF transcription factors are required for activating injury-associated cold response and downstream salicylic acid (SA) signaling. The CBF-SA module promotes lignin deposition and wound healing, establishing a link between wound-induced biophysical cues and tissue repair programs.