Stuart Blackman takes a look at how plants protect themselves against the sun <\/p>
Plants are in something of a catch-22 when it comes to sunlight, says Stuart Blackman.<\/strong> <\/p> On the one hand, they need to soak it up to fuel the production of sugar by photosynthesis<\/a>; on the other this renders them highly vulnerable to ultraviolet wavelengths in the sun\u2019s rays which are harmful to all living organisms, particularly through the damage it inflicts on DNA.<\/p> Plants cannot move into the shade when they\u2019ve had enough sun. Nor can they use biological sunscreens, because this would hamper photosynthesis. <\/p> Instead, plants put their energies into repair rather than prevention. UV light activates specialised molecules within plant tissues that initiate a cascade of biochemical reactions leading to the deployment of enzymes that stitch broken strands of DNA back together. <\/p> The precise mechanisms are not yet fully understood, but might one day yield new methods for protecting crops<\/a> \u2013 and even perhaps ourselves \u2013 against the harmful effects of excessive sun. <\/p> Discover more fascinating plant facts<\/strong><\/p> Stuart Blackman takes a look at how plants protect themselves against the sun <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":41215,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays.jpg",2121,1414,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/08\/do-plants-get-sunburn-or-are-they-able-to-protect-themselves-against-harmful-uv-rays-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Stuart Blackman takes a look at how plants protect themselves against the sun","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/41214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}So how do plants protect themselves from UV rays?<\/h2>
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