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Arabidopsis callose synthases CalS1/8 regulate plasmodesmal permeability during stress

Nature Plants volume 2, Article number: 16034 (2016) Cite this article

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Abstract

Plants need to cope with biotic and abiotic stress through well-coordinated cell-to-cell communication to survive as sedentary organisms. Environmental challenges such as wounding, low temperature, oxidative states and pathogen infection are known to affect the symplasmic molecular exchange between plant cells determined by plasmodesmal permeability. However, the signalling pathways and mechanisms by which different environmental stressors affect plasmodesmal permeability are not well understood. Here we show that regulating callose accumulation at plasmodesmal channels is a common strategy to alter plasmodesmal permeability under both pathogen infection and mechanical wounding stress. We have identified Arabidopsis callose synthase 1 (CalS1) and CalS8 as key genes involved in this process, and have integrated these new players into both known and novel signalling pathways that control responses to biotic and abiotic stress. Our studies provide experimental data that indicate the presence of specialized pathways tuned to respond to particular stressors, and new insights into how plants regulate plasmodesmata in response to environmental assaults.

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Figure 1: Extracellular ROS accumulation perturbs cell-to-cell CF movement and plasmodesmal callose levels.
Figure 2: Mechanical wounding transiently diminishes cell-to-cell CF movement in a ROS-dependent manner.
Figure 3: CALS1 is a bona fide callose synthase required for SA-dependent plasmodesmata regulation.
Figure 4: CalS8 is another bona fide callose synthase required for ROS-dependent plasmodesmata regulation.
Figure 5: CalS1 and CalS8 function together with PDLP5.

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Acknowledgements

We thank K. Gallagher for her critical comments on the manuscript and editing, and S. Xiao and P. Kachroo for helpful discussions. We also thank Lee laboratory members and J. Caplan for technical assistance and J. Yoo for editing and proofreading the manuscript. This work was supported partially through the grants provided by the National Science Foundation (IOS-0954931 and IOS-1457121) and through grants from the National Center for Research Resources (5P30RR031160-03) and IDeA program of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (P30 GM103519), which are awarded to J.-Y.L.

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  1. Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Delaware Biotechnology Institute, University of Delaware, Newark, 19711, Delaware, USA

    Weier Cui & Jung-Youn Lee

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  1. Weier Cui
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W.C. performed the experiments and J.-Y.L. designed the experiments. W.C. and J.-Y.L. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jung-Youn Lee.

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Cui, W., Lee, JY. Arabidopsis callose synthases CalS1/8 regulate plasmodesmal permeability during stress. Nature Plants 2, 16034 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2016.34

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