Abstract
Exposure of plants to toxic concentrations of metals leads to disruption of the cellular redox status followed by an accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). ROS, like hydrogen peroxide, can act as signaling molecules in the cell and induce signaling via mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascades. MAPK cascades are evolutionary conserved signal transduction modules, able to convert extracellular signals to appropriate cellular responses. In this review, our current understanding about MAPK signaling in plant metal stress is discussed. However, this knowledge is scarce compared to research into the role of MAPK signaling in the case of other abiotic and biotic stresses. ROS production is a common response induced by different stresses and undiscovered analogies may exist with metal stress. Therefore, further attention is given to MAPK signaling in other biotic and abiotic stresses and its interplay with other signaling pathways to create a framework in which the involvement of MAPK signaling in metal stress may be studied.
Highlights
Pollution of soils with toxic metals is a worldwide problem of great concern [1]
14-day-old mekk1 knockout plants did activate MPK3 and MPK6 activity within 10 min after treatment with flg22, but failed to induce MPK4 activity. These results indicate that probably more alternative pathways exist to activate MPK3/6 in the absence of MEKK1 [90]
These results suggest a negative regulation of the jasmonic acid (JA) downstream pathway by protein kinase cascades
Summary
Pollution of soils with toxic metals is a worldwide problem of great concern [1]. The high amount of metals, locally present in the environment, is mainly caused by mining and industrial activities [2,3]. Metals like copper (Cu), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), cobalt (Co) and nickel (Ni) are essential micronutrients required for normal plant growth and development [5,6] They are essential, these elements can become toxic for plants when they exceed the concentrations normally present in the environment. ROS can react with biomolecules, which can get irreversibly damaged leading to necrosis and cell death, they can act as signals in diverse biological processes in plants. In this way, they can influence signal transduction pathways and gene expression, suggesting that cells have evolved strategies to utilize. Because H2O2 production is involved in multiple abiotic stresses, comparison with other known ROS-induced signaling pathways is discussed
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