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Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2023) | Viewed by 19918

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Prof. Dr. Jen-Tsung Chen

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Department of Life Sciences, National University of Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung 811, Taiwan
Interests: bioactive compounds; chromatography techniques; medicinal plants; phytochemicals; plant biotechnology; plant growth regulators; plant secondary metabolites
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the continuation of our previous Special Issues “Cell Signaling in Model Plants” and “Cell Signaling in Model Plants 2.0”.

Plants as sessile organisms are not able to move and must respond to adverse environmental conditions/stress, such as high salinity, heat, cold, drought, oxidative stress, and pathogen attack. Signal transduction is a complex network of interactions in which signal elements (physical and chemical) are transmitted through the plant cell to respond to environmental stimuli. Receptors, protein kinases, transcription factors, intracellular calcium, ROS, and hormones are the main components of the signal transduction pathway that regulate or stimulate other cell signal components.

This Special Issue explores the role of signaling components in model plants, such as Antirrhinum, Arabidopsis thaliana, Lotus japonicas, Medicago truncatula, rice, tobacco, and Zea mays, which have led to adaptation and resistance against abiotic and biotic stresses, including but not limited to functional analysis of key genes, hormone contents, signal transduction networks, gene expression profiling, and post-translation modifications.

Prof. Dr. Jen-Tsung Chen
Guest Editor

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Keywords

hormone profiling
cell receptors
abiotic stress
biotic stress
transcription factors
micro-RNA
regulatory elements
protein kinases
protein–protein interaction
cellular responses
functional genomics
gene expression
enzyme activity
computational biology

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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24 pages, 3819 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Examining the Transcriptomic and Biochemical Signatures of Bacillus subtilis Strains: Impacts on Plant Growth and Abiotic Stress Tolerance

by Peter E. Chang, Yun-Hsiang Wu, Ciao-Yun Tai, I-Hung Lin, Wen-Der Wang, Tong-Seung Tseng and Huey-wen Chuang

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(18), 13720; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms241813720 - 06 Sep 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1055

Abstract

Rhizobacteria from various ecological niches display variations in physiological characteristics. This study investigates the transcriptome profiling of two Bacillus subtilis strains, BsCP1 and BsPG1, each isolated from distinct environments. Gene expression linked to the synthesis of seven types of antibiotic compounds was detected in both BsCP1 and BsPG1 cultures. Among these, the genes associated with plipastatin synthesis were predominantly expressed in both bacterial strains. However, genes responsible for the synthesis of polyketide, subtilosin, and surfactin showed distinct transcriptional patterns. Additionally, genes involved in producing exopolysaccharides (EPS) showed higher expression levels in BsPG1 than in BsCP1. Consistently with this, a greater quantity of EPS was found in the BsPG1 culture compared to BsCP1. Both bacterial strains exhibited similar effects on Arabidopsis seedlings, promoting root branching and increasing seedling fresh weight. However, BsPG1 was a more potent enhancer of drought, heat, and copper stress tolerance than BsCP1. Treatment with BsPG1 had a greater impact on improving survival rates, increasing starch accumulation, and stabilizing chlorophyll content during the post-stress stage. qPCR analysis was used to measure transcriptional changes in Arabidopsis seedlings in response to BsCP1 and BsPG1 treatment. The results show that both bacterial strains had a similar impact on the expression of genes involved in the salicylic acid (SA) and jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathways. Likewise, genes associated with stress response, root development, and disease resistance showed comparable responses to both bacterial strains. However, treatment with BsCP1 and BsPG1 induced distinct activation of genes associated with the ABA signaling pathway. The results of this study demonstrate that bacterial strains from different ecological environments have varying abilities to produce beneficial metabolites for plant growth. Apart from the SA and JA signaling pathways, ABA signaling triggered by PGPR bacterial strains could play a crucial role in building an effective resistance to various abiotic stresses in the plants they colonize. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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17 pages, 7992 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Proteasome Dysfunction Leads to Suppression of the Hypoxic Response Pathway in Arabidopsis

by Xue Xia, Chun-Meng Tang, Gu-Zi Chen and Jia-Jia Han

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(24), 16148; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416148 - 18 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1535

Abstract

Proteasome is a large proteolytic complex that consists of a 20S core particle (20SP) and 19S regulatory particle (19SP) in eukaryotes. The proteasome degrades most cellular proteins, thereby controlling many key processes, including gene expression and protein quality control. Proteasome dysfunction in plants leads to abnormal development and reduced adaptability to environmental stresses. Previous studies have shown that proteasome dysfunction upregulates the gene expression of proteasome subunits, which is known as the proteasome bounce-back response. However, the proteasome bounce-back response cannot explain the damaging effect of proteasome dysfunction on plant growth and stress adaptation. To address this question, we focused on downregulated genes caused by proteasome dysfunction. We first confirmed that the 20SP subunit PBE is an essential proteasome subunit in Arabidopsis and that PBE1 mutation impaired the function of the proteasome. Transcriptome analyses showed that hypoxia-responsive genes were greatly enriched in the downregulated genes in pbe1 mutants. Furthermore, we found that the pbe1 mutant is hypersensitive to waterlogging stress, a typical hypoxic condition, and hypoxia-related developments are impaired in the pbe1 mutant. Meanwhile, the 19SP subunit rpn1a mutant seedlings are also hypersensitive to waterlogging stress. In summary, our results suggested that proteasome dysfunction downregulated the hypoxia-responsive pathway and impaired plant growth and adaptability to hypoxia stress. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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24 pages, 4112 KiB

Open AccessArticle

bHLH010/089 Transcription Factors Control Pollen Wall Development via Specific Transcriptional and Metabolic Networks in Arabidopsis thaliana

by Zesen Lai, Jianzheng Wang, Shi-Qing Peng and Fang Chang

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(19), 11683; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms231911683 - 02 Oct 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1917

Abstract

The pollen wall is a specialized extracellular cell wall that protects male gametophytes from various environmental stresses and facilitates pollination. Here, we reported that bHLH010 and bHLH089 together are required for the development of the pollen wall by regulating their specific downstream transcriptional and metabolic networks. Both the exine and intine structures of bhlh010 bhlh089 pollen grains were severely defective. Further untargeted metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses revealed that the accumulation of pollen wall morphogenesis-related metabolites, including polysaccharides, glyceryl derivatives, and flavonols, were significantly changed, and the expression of such metabolic enzyme-encoding genes and transporter-encoding genes related to pollen wall morphogenesis was downregulated in bhlh010 bhlh089 mutants. Among these downstream target genes, CSLB03 is a novel target with no biological function being reported yet. We found that bHLH010 interacted with the two E-box sequences at the promoter of CSLB03 and directly activated the expression of CSLB03. The cslb03 mutant alleles showed bhlh010 bhlh089–like pollen developmental defects, with most of the pollen grains exhibiting defective pollen wall structures. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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Review

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17 pages, 3315 KiB

Open AccessReview

Precise Regulation of the TAA1/TAR-YUCCA Auxin Biosynthesis Pathway in Plants

by Pan Luo and Dong-Wei Di

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2023, 24(10), 8514; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms24108514 - 10 May 2023

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2379

Abstract

The indole-3-pyruvic acid (IPA) pathway is the main auxin biosynthesis pathway in the plant kingdom. Local control of auxin biosynthesis through this pathway regulates plant growth and development and the responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. During the past decades, genetic, physiological, biochemical, and molecular studies have greatly advanced our understanding of tryptophan-dependent auxin biosynthesis. The IPA pathway includes two steps: Trp is converted to IPA by TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE OF ARABIDOPSIS/TRYPTOPHAN AMINOTRANSFERASE RELATED PROTEINs (TAA1/TARs), and then IPA is converted to IAA by the flavin monooxygenases (YUCCAs). The IPA pathway is regulated at multiple levels, including transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation, protein modification, and feedback regulation, resulting in changes in gene transcription, enzyme activity and protein localization. Ongoing research indicates that tissue-specific DNA methylation and miRNA-directed regulation of transcription factors may also play key roles in the precise regulation of IPA-dependent auxin biosynthesis in plants. This review will mainly summarize the regulatory mechanisms of the IPA pathway and address the many unresolved questions regarding this auxin biosynthesis pathway in plants. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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20 pages, 1941 KiB

Open AccessReview

Plant Disease Resistance-Related Signaling Pathways: Recent Progress and Future Prospects

by Li-Na Ding, Yue-Tao Li, Yuan-Zhen Wu, Teng Li, Rui Geng, Jun Cao, Wei Zhang and Xiao-Li Tan

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(24), 16200; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232416200 - 19 Dec 2022

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 7714

Abstract

Plant–pathogen interactions induce a signal transmission series that stimulates the plant’s host defense system against pathogens and this, in turn, leads to disease resistance responses. Plant innate immunity mainly includes two lines of the defense system, called pathogen-associated molecular pattern-triggered immunity (PTI) and effector-triggered immunity (ETI). There is extensive signal exchange and recognition in the process of triggering the plant immune signaling network. Plant messenger signaling molecules, such as calcium ions, reactive oxygen species, and nitric oxide, and plant hormone signaling molecules, such as salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene, play key roles in inducing plant defense responses. In addition, heterotrimeric G proteins, the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade, and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) play important roles in regulating disease resistance and the defense signal transduction network. This paper summarizes the status and progress in plant disease resistance and disease resistance signal transduction pathway research in recent years; discusses the complexities of, and interactions among, defense signal pathways; and forecasts future research prospects to provide new ideas for the prevention and control of plant diseases. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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17 pages, 1769 KiB

Open AccessReview

Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants: Brassinosteroids Navigate Competently

by Abira Chaudhuri, Koushik Halder, Malik Z. Abdin, Manoj Majee and Asis Datta

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(23), 14577; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232314577 - 23 Nov 2022

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 4337

Abstract

Brassinosteroid hormones (BRs) multitask to smoothly regulate a broad spectrum of vital physiological processes in plants, such as cell division, cell expansion, differentiation, seed germination, xylem differentiation, reproductive development and light responses (photomorphogenesis and skotomorphogenesis). Their importance is inferred when visible abnormalities arise in plant phenotypes due to suboptimal or supraoptimal hormone levels. This group of steroidal hormones are major growth regulators, having pleiotropic effects and conferring abiotic stress resistance to plants. Numerous abiotic stresses are the cause of significant loss in agricultural yield globally. However, plants are well equipped with efficient stress combat machinery. Scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS) is a unique mechanism to combat the deleterious effects of abiotic stresses. In light of numerous reports in the past two decades, the complex BR signaling under different stress conditions (drought, salinity, extreme temperatures and heavy metals/metalloids) that drastically hinders the normal metabolism of plants is gradually being untangled and revealed. Thus, crop improvement has substantial potential by tailoring either the brassinosteroid signaling, biosynthesis pathway or perception. This review aims to explore and dissect the actual mission of BRs in signaling cascades and summarize their positive role with respect to abiotic stress tolerance. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Cell Signaling in Model Plants 3.0)

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