As plants are sessile organisms, they must be highly flexible in their ability to adapt to a wide range of environmental conditions in order to survive. Researchers from the Department of Plant Physiology at the RPTU Kaiserslautern are investigating plant adaptation mechanisms, particularly to abiotic stress factors such as light intensity or temperature. They have now reached a new milestone: PhD student Annalisa John has used the model plant thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) in her research work to decode which cellular mechanisms that plants use to adapt to cold temperatures and frost. The results of the study have been published in the renowned scientific journal “The Plant Cell”.