Figure 8.

Functional diversity of Arabidopsis VDACs depending on their ability to complement Δpor1. VDAC1, VDAC2, and VDAC4 can complement the lack of ScVDAC1 in Δpor1 and maintain a stable mitochondrial membrane potential and also as a consequence maintain reactive oxygen species homeostasis. They can also survive under salt stress (as evidenced by our NaCl experiments). VDAC3 complemented Δpor1 only show subtle complementation. When these transformants were analysed in oxidative stress (as evidenced by our acetic acid or methyl viologen tolerance experiments) the VDAC3 transformants show comparable results like the rest (VDAC1, VDAC2, and VDAC4) indicating a possible role of this protein in reactive oxygen species signaling/homeostasis.