Hydrotropism facilitates the orientation of plant roots toward regions of elevated water potential, enabling them to absorb adequate water. Although calcium signaling plays a crucial role in plant response to water tracking, the exact regulatory mechanisms remain a mystery. Here, we employed the Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) hydrotropism-specific protein MIZU-KUSSEI1 (MIZ1) as bait and found that calcium-dependent protein kinases 4/5/6/11 (CPK4/5/6/11) interacted with MIZ1 in vitro and in vivo.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBoron (B) is crucial for plant growth and development. B deficiency can impair numerous physiological and metabolic processes, particularly in root development and pollen germination, seriously impeding crop growth and yield. However, the molecular mechanism underlying boron signal perception and signal transduction is rather limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe stress hormone, Abscisic acid (ABA), is crucial for plants to respond to changes in their environment. It triggers changes in cytoplasmic Ca levels, which activate plant responses to external stresses. However, how Ca sensing and signaling feeds back into ABA signaling is not well understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis brief article highlights the results of Zhang et al. (Science 379, eade8416, 2023), who recently found that the Gγ subunit AT1/GS3 contributes to alkaline tolerance in several main monocots crops, and revealed the molecular mechanism of AT1/GS3-mediated response to alkaline stress in plants, which involves regulating HO levels by inhibiting the phosphorylation of aquaporin PIP2s.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant mineral nutrition is essential for crop yields and human health. However, the uneven distribution of mineral elements over time and space leads to a lack or excess of available mineral elements in plants. Among the essential nutrients, calcium (Ca) stands out as a prominent second messenger that plays crucial roles in response to extracellular stimuli in all eukaryotes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient in plants. However, excessive Mn absorption in acidic soils can cause Mn toxicity, which adversely affects plant growth and crop yields. At present, acidic soils cover c.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe vacuole is one of the most conspicuous organelles in plant cells, participating in a series of physiological processes, such as storage of ions and compartmentalization of heavy metals. Isolation of intact vacuoles and elemental analysis provides a powerful method to investigate the functions and regulatory mechanisms of tonoplast transporters. Here, we present a protocol to isolate intact vacuoles from root protoplasts and analyze their elemental content by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHomeostasis of the essential micronutrient manganese (Mn) is crucially determined through availability and uptake efficiency in all organisms. Mn deficiency of plants especially occurs in alkaline and calcareous soils, seriously restricting crop yield. However, the mechanisms underlying the sensing and signaling of Mn availability and conferring regulation of Mn uptake await elucidation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient for all living organisms. However, excess Mn supply that can occur in acid or waterlogged soils has toxic effects on plant physiology and development. Although a variety of Mn transporter families have been characterized, we have only a rudimentary understanding of how these transporters are regulated to uphold and adjust Mn homeostasis in plants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManganese (Mn) is an essential micronutrient in plants. However, excessive Mn absorption in acidic and waterlogged soils can lead to Mn toxicity. Despite their essential roles in Mn homeostasis, transcriptional and post-transcriptional modifications of Mn transporters remain poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNitrogen (N) is a limiting nutrient for plant growth and productivity. The phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) has been suggested to play a vital role in nitrate uptake in fluctuating N environments. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying the involvement of ABA in N deficiency responses are largely unknown.
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