ABSTRACT
The torsional tension, bending, and supercoiling of DNA, which affect its function, change significantly over the range of temperatures found in terrestrial environments. Most poikilothermic animals either inhabit environments in which temperatures do not vary greatly, or move if the temperature changes. Temperatures on the terrestrial surface of Earth vary dramatically both spatially and temporally. Models of the effects of temperature on plant growth rate, often based on temperature differences from optima, have long been used to predict crop yields, and are being used to predict the effects of changing temperature regimes on plants. Interactions between yield and temperature are complex, but in the case of rice increases in minimum temperature can decrease yields more than increases in maximum temperature. The detection of temperature depends not on receptors for chemicals but on physical changes in particular biomolecules, so because the whole plant body tracks environmental temperature, a wide variety of molecules are potential thermosensors.
