Abstract
Programmed cell death (PCD) is a process intended for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis by eliminating old, damaged, or unwanted cells. In plants, PCD takes place during developmental processes and in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. In contrast to the field of animal studies, PCD is not well understood in plants. Calcium (Ca2+) is a universal cell signaling entity and regulates numerous physiological activities across all the kingdoms of life. The cytosolic increase in Ca2+ is a prerequisite for the induction of PCD in plants. Although over the past years, we have witnessed significant progress in understanding the role of Ca2+ in the regulation of PCD, it is still unclear how the upstream stress perception leads to the Ca2+ elevation and how the signal is further propagated to result in the onset of PCD. In this review article, we discuss recent advancements in the field, and compare the role of Ca2+ signaling in PCD in biotic and abiotic stresses. Moreover, we discuss the upstream and downstream components of Ca2+ signaling and its crosstalk with other signaling pathways in PCD. The review is expected to provide new insights into the role of Ca2+ signaling in PCD and to identify gaps for future research efforts.
Highlights
Programmed cell death (PCD) is a process that plays a fundamental role in plant development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses [1,2]
Associate with each other in plants [53]. These findings suggest that maintaining the homeostasis of BAK1 through a Ca2+ dependent proteolytic process is crucial for plant hypersensitive response (HR)
Okadaic acid (OA), a protein phosphatase inhibitor, can completely inhibit the GA response which is induced by rapid changes in cytosolic Ca2+ through regulating the gene expression and accelerated cell death [161]
Summary
Programmed cell death (PCD) is a process that plays a fundamental role in plant development and responses to biotic and abiotic stresses [1,2]. According to the differences in the expression of the conserved PCD-inducing genes, two main types of plant. PCD are distinguishable; developmental PCD (dPCD) regulated by internal factors, and environmental PCD (ePCD) induced by external stimuli [3]. Transient changes in cytosolic Ca2+ level are rapidly induced by diverse stimuli in plants [7,8]. Substantial evidence indicates that Ca2+ plays an important role in cell death regulation [9]. The emptying of intracellular Ca2+ stores and/or alteration in intracellular Ca2+ levels has been shown to modulate cell death in almost all cell types.
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