Sensing and Signalling in Plant Stress Response

• Downstream Signalling
• Perspectives
• Oxygen Sensing
• Integrative Stress
• Plant Signals

Plants exposed to continuous changing environment to which plants have to adjust accordingly to the condition. Plants response is regulated by a complex signalling pathway which starts with stimulus perception.

Recently identified sensing mechanisms includes heat sensing by the photoreceptor phytochrome B, drought sensing by specific calcium influx channel and OSCA1 and salt sensing by glycosylinositol phosphorylceramide sphingolipids.

Extreme weather conditions like suboptimal temperatures, high soil ion content and altered water availability results in abiotic stress and where it leads to growth decrease. In such case plant makes its own modifications to survive and it will continue throughout its life cycle.

Abiotic stresses can be explained by the primary sensory mechanism which translates the physical environment and chemical environment such as ion concentration and water availability temperature, into a biological signal.