Abstract
As a ubiquitous secondary messenger in plant signaling systems, calcium ions (Ca2+) play essential roles in plant growth and development. Within the cellular signaling network, the accurate decoding of diverse Ca2+ signal is a fundamental molecular event. Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs), identified commonly in plants, are a kind of vital regulatory protein deciphering calcium signals triggered by various developmental and environmental stimuli. This review chiefly introduces Ca2+ distribution in plant cells, the classification of Arabidopsis thaliana CDPKs (AtCDPKs), the identification of the Ca2+-AtCDPK signal transduction mechanism and AtCDPKs’ functions involved in plant growth regulation and abiotic stress responses. The review presents a comprehensive overview of AtCDPKs and may contribute to the research of CDPKs in other plants.
Highlights
Plants respond to environmental fluctuations and developmental cues by generating intricate signal transduction networks, which are composed of multiple protein or non-protein elements
CaM is highly conserved in all eukaryotes, whereas Calmodulin-like proteins (CMLs), Calcineurin B-like proteins (CBLs) and Calcium-dependent protein kinases (CDPKs) are only identified in plants and some protists [10,11]
We mainly introduce the basic introduction of the Ca2+ signaling pathway and Arabidopsis thaliana CDPKs (AtCDPKs)’ functions involved with plant growth regulation and abiotic stress responses
Summary
Plants respond to environmental fluctuations and developmental cues by generating intricate signal transduction networks, which are composed of multiple protein or non-protein elements. CaM is highly conserved in all eukaryotes, whereas CMLs, CBLs and CDPKs are only identified in plants and some protists [10,11] Among these families, CaMs, CMLs and CBLs are small-molecule proteins only harboring a Ca2+ sensing domain; they work as sensor relays by binding to the downstream effectors in a Ca2+-concentration dependent manner [12]. CaMs, CMLs and CBLs are small-molecule proteins only harboring a Ca2+ sensing domain; they work as sensor relays by binding to the downstream effectors in a Ca2+-concentration dependent manner [12] Different from those above, CDPKs contain a serine/threonine protein kinase catalytic domain as an effector domain as well as possessing a Ca2+ sensing domain. We mainly introduce the basic introduction of the Ca2+ signaling pathway and AtCDPKs’ functions involved with plant growth regulation and abiotic stress responses
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