Summary
Cold temperatures and unexpected frost events cause billions of dollars in agricultural losses each year and limit where crops can be grown. Plants survive freezing conditions by protecting their cellular membranes, which are highly sensitive to temperature and dehydration. This project seeks to understand a natural strategy plants use to survive freezing: the production of unusual membrane lipids in chloroplasts during cold stress. These lipids appear only during freezing and disappear when temperatures recover, suggesting they provide a temporary but critical protective function. By uncoveri
