Analysis of abiotic and biotic stress-induced Ca transients in the crop species Solanum tuberosum.

Secondary messengers, such as calcium ions (Ca), are integral parts of a system that transduces environmental stimuli into appropriate cellular responses. Different abiotic and biotic stresses as well as developmental processes trigger temporal increases in cytosolic free Ca levels by an influx from external and internal stores. Stimulus-specificity is obtained by a certain amplitude, duration, oscillation and localisation of the response.

Stress Knowledge Map: A knowledge graph resource for systems biology analysis of plant stress responses.

Stress Knowledge Map (SKM; https://skm.nib.si) is a publicly available resource containing two complementary knowledge graphs that describe the current knowledge of biochemical, signaling, and regulatory molecular interactions in plants: a highly curated model of plant stress signaling (PSS; 543 reactions) and a large comprehensive knowledge network (488 390 interactions).

Global transcriptome profiling reveals root- and leaf-specific responses of barley ( L.) to HO.

In cereal crops, such as barley ( L.), the ability to appropriately respond to environmental cues is an important factor for yield stability and thus for agricultural production. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), such as hydrogen peroxide (HO), are key components of signal transduction cascades involved in plant adaptation to changing environmental conditions.

Comparative analysis of wild-type and chloroplast MCU-deficient plants reveals multiple consequences of chloroplast calcium handling under drought stress.

Introduction: Chloroplast calcium homeostasis plays an important role in modulating the response of plants to abiotic and biotic stresses. One of the greatest challenges is to understand how chloroplast calcium-permeable pathways and sensors are regulated in a concerted manner to translate specific information into a calcium signature and to elucidate the downstream effects of specific chloroplast calcium dynamics. One of the six homologs of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) was found to be located in chloroplasts in the leaves and to crucially contribute to drought- and oxidative stress-triggered uptake of calcium into this organelle.

Organelles and phytohormones: a network of interactions in plant stress responses.

Phytohormones are major signaling components that contribute to nearly all aspects of plant life. They constitute an interconnected communication network to fine-tune growth and development in response to the ever-changing environment. To this end, they have to coordinate with other signaling components, such as reactive oxygen species and calcium signals.

Comparative analysis of stress-induced calcium signals in the crop species barley and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.

Background: Plants are continuously exposed to changing environmental conditions and biotic attacks that affect plant growth. In crops, the inability to respond appropriately to stress has strong detrimental effects on agricultural production and yield. Ca signalling plays a fundamental role in the response of plants to most abiotic and biotic stresses.

Constitutive expression of JASMONATE RESISTANT 1 induces molecular changes that prime the plants to better withstand drought.

In this study, we investigated Arabidopsis thaliana plants with altered levels of the enzyme JASMONATE RESISTANT 1 (JAR1), which converts jasmonic acid (JA) to jasmonoyl-l-isoleucine (JA-Ile). Analysis of a newly generated overexpression line (35S::JAR1) revealed that constitutively increased JA-Ile production in 35S::JAR1 alters plant development, resulting in stunted growth and delayed flowering. Under drought-stress conditions, 35S::JAR1 plants showed reduced wilting and recovered better from desiccation than the wild type.

Chloroplast-derived photo-oxidative stress causes changes in H2O2 and EGSH in other subcellular compartments.

Metabolic fluctuations in chloroplasts and mitochondria can trigger retrograde signals to modify nuclear gene expression. Mobile signals likely to be involved are reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can operate protein redox switches by oxidation of specific cysteine residues. Redox buffers, such as the highly reduced glutathione pool, serve as reservoirs of reducing power for several ROS-scavenging and ROS-induced damage repair pathways.

Organellar calcium signaling in plants: An update.

Calcium ion (Ca) is a versatile signaling transducer in all eukaryotic organisms. In plants, intracellular changes in free Ca levels act as regulators in many growth and developmental processes. Ca also mediates the cellular responses to environmental stimuli and thus plays an important role in providing stress tolerance to plants.

The High Light Response in Arabidopsis Requires the Calcium Sensor Protein CAS, a Target of STN7- and STN8-Mediated Phosphorylation.

Reversible phosphorylation of thylakoid proteins contributes to photoacclimation responses in photosynthetic organisms, enabling the fine-tuning of light harvesting under changing light conditions and promoting the onset of photoprotective processes. However, the precise functional role of many of the described phosphorylation events on thylakoid proteins remains elusive. The calcium sensor receptor protein (CAS) has previously been indicated as one of the targets of the state transition kinase 8 (STN8).

A chloroplast-localized mitochondrial calcium uniporter transduces osmotic stress in Arabidopsis.

Chloroplasts are integral to sensing biotic and abiotic stress in plants, but their role in transducing Ca-mediated stress signals remains poorly understood. Here we identify cMCU, a member of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) family, as an ion channel mediating Ca flux into chloroplasts in vivo. Using a toolkit of aequorin reporters targeted to chloroplast stroma and the cytosol in cMCU wild-type and knockout lines, we provide evidence that stress-stimulus-specific Ca dynamics in the chloroplast stroma correlate with expression of the channel.

A novel Ca-binding protein influences photosynthetic electron transport in Anabaena sp. PCC 7120.

Ca is a potent signalling molecule that regulates many cellular processes. In cyanobacteria, Ca has been linked to cell growth, stress response and photosynthesis, and to the development of specialist heterocyst cells in certain nitrogen-fixing species. Despite this, the pathways of Ca signal transduction in cyanobacteria are poorly understood, and very few protein components are known.

Chloroplast Ca Fluxes into and across Thylakoids Revealed by Thylakoid-Targeted Aequorin Probes.

Chloroplasts require a fine-tuned control of their internal Ca concentration, which is crucial for many aspects of photosynthesis and for other chloroplast-localized processes. Increasing evidence suggests that calcium regulation within chloroplasts also may influence Ca signaling pathways in the cytosol. To investigate the involvement of thylakoids in Ca homeostasis and in the modulation of chloroplast Ca signals in vivo, we targeted the bioluminescent Ca reporter aequorin as a YFP fusion to the lumen and the stromal surface of thylakoids in Arabidopsis ().

Structural basis for the magnesium-dependent activation of transketolase from Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Background: In photosynthetic organisms, transketolase (TK) is involved in the Calvin-Benson cycle and participates to the regeneration of ribulose-5-phosphate. Previous studies demonstrated that TK catalysis is strictly dependent on thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) and divalent ions such as Mg.

Methods: TK from the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (CrTK) was recombinantly produced and purified to homogeneity.

TOM9.2 Is a Calmodulin-Binding Protein Critical for TOM Complex Assembly but Not for Mitochondrial Protein Import in Arabidopsis thaliana.

The translocon on the outer membrane of mitochondria (TOM) facilitates the import of nuclear-encoded proteins. The principal machinery of mitochondrial protein transport seems conserved in eukaryotes; however, divergence in the composition and structure of TOM components has been observed between mammals, yeast, and plants. TOM9, the plant homolog of yeast Tom22, is significantly smaller due to a truncation in the cytosolic receptor domain, and its precise function is not understood.

Dissecting stimulus-specific Ca2+ signals in amyloplasts and chloroplasts of Arabidopsis thaliana cell suspension cultures.

Calcium is used by plants as an intracellular messenger in the detection of and response to a plethora of environmental stimuli and contributes to a fine-tuned internal regulation. Interest in the role of different subcellular compartments in Ca(2+) homeostasis and signalling has been growing in recent years. This work has evaluated the potential participation of non-green plastids and chloroplasts in the plant Ca(2+) signalling network using heterotrophic and autotrophic cell suspension cultures from Arabidopsis thaliana plant lines stably expressing the bioluminescent Ca(2+) reporter aequorin targeted to the plastid stroma.

In vitro analyses of mitochondrial ATP/phosphate carriers from Arabidopsis thaliana revealed unexpected Ca(2+)-effects.

Background: Adenine nucleotide/phosphate carriers (APCs) from mammals and yeast are commonly known to adapt the mitochondrial adenine nucleotide pool in accordance to cellular demands. They catalyze adenine nucleotide--particularly ATP-Mg--and phosphate exchange and their activity is regulated by calcium. Our current knowledge about corresponding proteins from plants is comparably limited.

Phosphorylation of Arabidopsis transketolase at Ser428 provides a potential paradigm for the metabolic control of chloroplast carbon metabolism.

Calcium is an important second messenger in eukaryotic cells that regulates many different cellular processes. To elucidate calcium regulation in chloroplasts, we identified the targets of calcium-dependent phosphorylation within the stromal proteome. A 73 kDa protein was identified as one of the most dominant proteins undergoing phosphorylation in a calcium-dependent manner in the stromal extracts of both Arabidopsis and Pisum.

The first α-helical domain of the vesicle-inducing protein in plastids 1 promotes oligomerization and lipid binding.

The vesicle-inducing protein in plastids 1 (Vipp1) is an essential component for thylakoid biogenesis in cyanobacteria and chloroplasts. Vipp1 proteins share significant structural similarity with their evolutionary ancestor PspA (bacterial phage shock protein A), namely a predominantly α-helical structure, the formation of oligomeric high molecular weight complexes (HMW-Cs) and a tight association with membranes. Here, we elucidated domains of Vipp1 from Arabidopsis thaliana involved in homo-oligomerization as well as association with chloroplast inner envelope membranes.