High on oxygen

Organisms living at elevation are exposed to a constant state of hypoxia compared to those at low altitude. A recent study 1 has shown that flowering plants acclimatize to high altitude through natural variation in molecular oxygen (O 2 ) sensing, with high-altitude populations exhibiting increased O 2 sensitivity to balance physiological and metabolic outputs. This finding demonstrates convergent mechanisms for altitude adaptation across eukaryotic kingdoms despite differences in the hypoxia-signalling pathways of plants and animals.