Calcium alleviates stress in plants: insight into regulatory mechanisms

摘要

Plants as sessile organisms are constantly exposed to different stressors incidence: biotic and / or abiotic factors.Consequently, the viability of plants depends on their ability to perceive the changes that occur in their naturalenvironment (either beneficial or harmful) and to appropriately respond physiologically, biochemically, and in terms oftheir development, to overcome and to counter the possible destructive effects. Plasma membrane, as the main selectivebarrier between the plant cell and the environment have different receptor proteins in its structure, to sense variousexternal stimuli and transduce them to downstream intra- and intercellular signalling networks. An universal signalmolecule is calcium and the calcium-sensing is of fundamental importance for extracellular calcium signalling andcalcium homeostasis. Calcium is an important second messenger in signal transduction pathways, mediating variousdefence responses to the action under environmental stresses and in the regulation of many developmental processes inplants, being one of the most studied second messengers both in plant and animal fields. This brief review summarizessome results of recent research on the involvement of calcium in plant responses to stress factors action, addressing inparticular scientific and practical importance of such knowledge, in order to improve plant tolerance to stress factors.