0000000000148874
AUTHOR
Jörg Durner
Nitric oxide: a new player in plant signalling and defence responses.
There is increasing evidence that nitric oxide (NO), which was first identified as a unique diffusible molecular messenger in animals, plays important roles in diverse (patho)physiological processes in plants. NO functions include the modulation of hormonal, wounding and defence responses, as well as the regulation of cell death. Enzymes that catalyse NO synthesis and signalling cascades that mediate NO effects have recently been discovered, providing a better understanding of the mechanisms by which NO influences plant responses to various stimuli. Additionally, growing evidence suggests that NO signalling interacts with the salicylic acid and jasmonic acid signalling pathways.
Nitric oxide: comparative synthesis and signaling in animal and plant cells.
Since its identification as an endothelium-derived relaxing factor in the 1980s, nitric oxide has become the source of intensive and exciting research in animals. Nitric oxide is now considered to be a widespread signaling molecule involved in the regulation of an impressive spectrum of mammalian cellular functions. Its diverse effects have been attributed to an ability to chemically react with dioxygen and its redox forms and with specific iron- and thiol-containing proteins. Moreover, the effects of nitric oxide are dependent on the dynamic regulation of its biosynthetic enzyme nitric oxide synthase. Recently, the role of nitric oxide in plants has received much attention. Plants not only…
In vivo imaging of an elicitor-induced nitric oxide burst in tobacco
A growing body of evidence suggests that nitric oxide (NO), an important signalling and defence molecule in mammals, plays a key role in activating disease resistance in plants, acting as signalling molecule and possibly as direct anti-microbial agent. Recently, a novel fluorophore (diaminofluorescein diacetate, DAF-2 DA) has been developed which allows bio-imaging of NO in vivo. Here we use the cell-permeable DAF-2 DA, in conjunction with confocal laser scanning microscopy, for real-time imaging of NO in living plant cells. Epidermal tobacco cells treated with cryptogein, a fungal elicitor from Phytophthora cryptogea, respond to the elicitor with a strong increase of intracellular NO. NO-i…