The increases of H2O2 concentrations in plant cells often occur under biotic and abiotic stress conditions (e.g. light, environmental stresses and plant hormone abscisic acid). Atmospheric H2O2 as an ancient signal molecule not only plays the key role in inducing evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis, but also modulates many physiological events, such as stomatal movement, hypersensitive responses, programmed cell death and gene expressions. H2O2 levels in cells must sustain a fine equilibrium between production and scavenging. H2O2 enters cells from the apoplast or generated sources, and in turn is distributed in sub-cellular compartments. H2O2 can modulate the activities of many components in signaling, such as protein phosphatases, protein kinases, transcription factors (TFs), and calcium channels. Elevated cytosolic calcium concentrations will initiate further downstream responses, via the action of calcium-binding proteins. On the other hand, the research of H2O2 as a signal molecule is still in a comparatively juvenile stage, for example, little is known about how the cells sense H2O2, what the rate-limiting steps and most important cellular events are in cell signaling and what kind of genes is specific or necessary to H2O2 signaling. The answers to all the questions depend on the functional genomic and molecular genetics analysis.
In response to variable environmental conditions, guard cells located in the leaf epidermis can integrate and cope with a multitude of complicated stimuli, thereby making stomata in an appro- priate state. However, many signaling components in guard cell signaling remain elusive. In our laboratory, a tool for non-invasive remote infrared thermal images was used to screen an ethyl methane sulfonate-mutagenized population for Arabidopsis stomatal response mutants under multiple stresses (ABA, H2O2, CO2, etc.). More than forty "hot" or "cold" mutants were isolated (above or below 0.5℃ in con- trast to normal plantlets). Identification and primary genetic analysis of these mutants show that they are monogenic recessive mutations and there exist distinct difference in stomata apertures compared to wild type. These mutants in response to various environmental stresses and hormones were comprehen- sively investigated, which enables us to further un- derstand the cross-talk in different signal transduction pathways.
SONG Yuwei KANG Yanli LIU Hao ZHAO Xiaoliang WANG Pengtao AN Guoyong ZHOU Yun MIAO Chen SONG Chunpeng
