Skip to main content

Some NLM-NCBI services and products are experiencing heavy traffic, which may affect performance and availability. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience. For assistance, please contact our Help Desk at info@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

The Plant Cell logoLink to The Plant Cell
. 1994 Sep;6(9):1301–1310. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.9.1301

Oxidative Signals in Tobacco Increase Cytosolic Calcium.

A H Price 1, A Taylor 1, S J Ripley 1, A Griffiths 1, A J Trewavas 1, M R Knight 1
PMCID: PMC160521  PMID: 12244272

Abstract

Tobacco (Nicotiana plumbaginifolia) seedlings genetically transformed to express apoaequorin were incubated in h-coelenterazine to reconstitute the calcium-sensitive luminescent protein aequorin. Treatment of these seedlings with hydrogen peroxide resulted in a transient burst of calcium-dependent luminescence lasting several minutes. Even though the hydrogen peroxide stimulus was persistent, the change in cytosolic free calcium concentration ([Ca2+]cyt) was transient, suggesting the presence of a refractory period. When seedlings were pretreated with hydrogen peroxide, there was no increase in [Ca2+]cyt upon a second application, which confirmed the refractory character of the response. Only when the two treatments were separated by 4 to 8 hr was full responsiveness recovered. However, treatment with hydrogen peroxide did not inhibit mobilization of [Ca2+]cyt induced by either cold shock or touching, suggesting that these three signals mobilize different pools of intracellular calcium. To examine whether [Ca2+]cyt is regulated by the redox state of the cytoplasm, we pretreated seedlings with buthionine sulfoximine (to modify cellular glutathione levels) and inhibitors of ascorbate peroxidase. These inhibitors modify the hydrogen peroxide-induced transients in [Ca2+]cyt, which is consistent with their effects on the cellular prooxidant/antioxidant ratio. Treatment with hydrogen peroxide that elicited [Ca2+]cyt increases also brought about a reduction in superoxide dismutase enzyme activity. This reduction could be reversed by treatment with the calcium channel blocker lanthanum. This indicates that there is a role for calcium in plant responses to oxidative stress.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (889.2 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Allen D. G., Blinks J. R. Calcium transients in aequorin-injected frog cardiac muscle. Nature. 1978 Jun 15;273(5663):509–513. doi: 10.1038/273509a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Apostol I., Heinstein P. F., Low P. S. Rapid Stimulation of an Oxidative Burst during Elicitation of Cultured Plant Cells : Role in Defense and Signal Transduction. Plant Physiol. 1989 May;90(1):109–116. doi: 10.1104/pp.90.1.109. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bradley D. J., Kjellbom P., Lamb C. J. Elicitor- and wound-induced oxidative cross-linking of a proline-rich plant cell wall protein: a novel, rapid defense response. Cell. 1992 Jul 10;70(1):21–30. doi: 10.1016/0092-8674(92)90530-p. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Bramhall S., Noack N., Wu M., Loewenberg J. R. A simple colorimetric method for determination of protein. Anal Biochem. 1969 Oct 1;31(1):146–148. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(69)90251-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Griffith O. W., Meister A. Potent and specific inhibition of glutathione synthesis by buthionine sulfoximine (S-n-butyl homocysteine sulfoximine). J Biol Chem. 1979 Aug 25;254(16):7558–7560. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Knight M. R., Campbell A. K., Smith S. M., Trewavas A. J. Transgenic plant aequorin reports the effects of touch and cold-shock and elicitors on cytoplasmic calcium. Nature. 1991 Aug 8;352(6335):524–526. doi: 10.1038/352524a0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Knight M. R., Read N. D., Campbell A. K., Trewavas A. J. Imaging calcium dynamics in living plants using semi-synthetic recombinant aequorins. J Cell Biol. 1993 Apr;121(1):83–90. doi: 10.1083/jcb.121.1.83. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Knight M. R., Smith S. M., Trewavas A. J. Wind-induced plant motion immediately increases cytosolic calcium. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Jun 1;89(11):4967–4971. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.11.4967. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Nicotera P., Bellomo G., Orrenius S. Calcium-mediated mechanisms in chemically induced cell death. Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 1992;32:449–470. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pa.32.040192.002313. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Nicotera P., Moore M., Mirabelli F., Bellomo G., Orrenius S. Inhibition of hepatocyte plasma membrane Ca2+-ATPase activity by menadione metabolism and its restoration by thiols. FEBS Lett. 1985 Feb 11;181(1):149–153. doi: 10.1016/0014-5793(85)81131-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Prasad T. K., Anderson M. D., Martin B. A., Stewart C. R. Evidence for Chilling-Induced Oxidative Stress in Maize Seedlings and a Regulatory Role for Hydrogen Peroxide. Plant Cell. 1994 Jan;6(1):65–74. doi: 10.1105/tpc.6.1.65. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Price A. H. A possible role for calcium in oxidative plant stress. Free Radic Res Commun. 1990;10(6):345–349. doi: 10.3109/10715769009149903. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tsokos-Kuhn J. O., Smith C. V., Hughes H., Mitchell J. R. Liver membrane calcium transport in diquat-induced oxidative stress in vivo. Mol Pharmacol. 1988 Aug;34(2):209–214. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from The Plant Cell are provided here courtesy of Oxford University Press

RESOURCES