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Plant Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Sickness and in Health

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A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Plant Sciences".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 18874

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. George Komis

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Guest Editor

Center of the Region Hana for Biotechnological and Agricultural Research, Palacky University, 78371 Olomouc, Czech Republic
Interests: cell division plane orientation; cell morphogenesis; confocal laser scanning microscopy; microtubule dynamics; mitogen activated protein kinases; mitotic spindle; phragmoplast; plant cytoskeleton; spinning disk microscopy; structured illumination microscopy
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mitogen activated protein kinase cascades of plants represent very diverse signaling modules underlying almost every aspect of plant sensing. They play key roles in decoding environmental conditions and mediate short-, mid-, and long-term responses of plant adaptation to various abiotic stresses. Meanwhile, they underlie biotic interactions between plants and other organisms and are integral to innate immunity mechanisms. Finally, MAPKs have been identified in key developmental functions that lead to tissue patterning and organ formation in plants in response to developmentally or conditionally controlled hormonal signals. Given the importance of MAPK signaling in plant biology, this Special Issue has a very broad scope and will host papers on the following topics: the involvement of specific MAPKs (MAPKKKs, MAPKKs) in abiotic stress responses of model and non-model plants, the involvement of specific MAPKs (MAPKKKs, MAPKKs) in biotic interactions of model and non-model plants, the involvement of specific MAPKs (MAPKKKs, MAPKKs) in developmental processes including the regulation of cell division plane orientation, the progression of mitosis and cytokinesis, or the control of cell growth after environmental stimulation.

Dr. George Komis
Guest Editor

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Keywords

Mitogen activated protein kinase
innate immunity
abiotic stress
reactive oxygen species
asymmetric cell division
scaffold protein
membrane receptors
transcription factors

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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25 pages, 4151 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Expanding the Toolkit of Fluorescent Biosensors for Studying Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Plants

by Kati Seitz and Patrick J. Krysan

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(15), 5350; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms21155350 - 28 Jul 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3288

Abstract

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are key regulators of numerous biological processes in plants. To better understand the mechanisms by which these kinases function, high resolution measurement of MAPK activation kinetics in different biological contexts would be beneficial. One method to measure MAPK activation in plants is via fluorescence-based genetically-encoded biosensors, which can provide real-time readouts of the temporal and spatial dynamics of kinase activation in living tissue. Although fluorescent biosensors have been widely used to study MAPK dynamics in animal cells, there is currently only one MAPK biosensor that has been described for use in plants. To facilitate creation of additional plant-specific MAPK fluorescent biosensors, we report the development of two new tools: an in vitro assay for efficiently characterizing MAPK docking domains and a translocation-based kinase biosensor for use in plants. The implementation of these two methods has allowed us to expand the available pool of plant MAPK biosensors, while also providing a means to generate more specific and selective MAPK biosensors in the future. Biosensors developed using these methods have the potential to enhance our understanding of the roles MAPKs play in diverse plant signaling networks affecting growth, development, and stress response. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Sickness and in Health)

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21 pages, 7334 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Identification of the MAPK Cascade and its Relationship with Nitrogen Metabolism in the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

by Aitor Gomez-Osuna, Victoria Calatrava, Aurora Galvan, Emilio Fernandez and Angel Llamas

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(10), 3417; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms21103417 - 12 May 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3116

Abstract

The mitogen activated protein kinases (MAPKs) form part of a signaling cascade through phosphorylation reactions conserved in all eukaryotic organisms. The MAPK cascades are mainly composed by three proteins, MAPKKKs, MAPKKs and MAPKs. Some signals induce MAPKKK-mediated phosphorylation and activation of MAPKK that phosphorylate and activate MAPK. Afterward, MAPKs can act either in the cytoplasm or be imported into the nucleus to activate other proteins or transcription factors. In the green microalga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii the pathway for nitrogen (N) assimilation is well characterized, yet its regulation still has many unknown features. Nitric oxide (NO) is a fundamental signal molecule for N regulation, where nitrate reductase (NR) plays a central role in its synthesis. The MAPK cascades could be regulating N assimilation, since it has been described that the phosphorylation of NR by MAPK6 promotes NO production in Arabidopsis thaliana. We have identified the proteins involved in the MAPK cascades in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, finding 17 MAPKs, 2 MAPKKs and 108 MAPKKKs (11 MEKK-, 94 RAF- and 3 ZIK-type) that have been structurally and phylogenetically characterized. The genetic expressions of MAPKs and the MAPKK were slightly regulated by N. However, the genetic expressions of MAPKKKs RAF14 and RAF79 showed a very strong repression by ammonium, which suggests that they may have a key role in the regulation of N assimilation, encouraging to further analyze in detail the role of MAPK cascades in the regulation of N metabolism. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Sickness and in Health)

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Review

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26 pages, 3703 KiB

Open AccessReview

Sustained Incompatibility between MAPK Signaling and Pathogen Effectors

by Julien Lang and Jean Colcombet

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(21), 7954; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms21217954 - 26 Oct 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 5039

Abstract

In plants, Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases (MAPKs) are important signaling components involved in developemental processes as well as in responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. In this review, we focus on the roles of MAPKs in Effector-Triggered Immunity (ETI), a specific layer of plant defense responses dependent on the recognition of pathogen effector proteins. Having inspected the literature, we synthesize the current state of knowledge concerning this topic. First, we describe how pathogen effectors can manipulate MAPK signaling to promote virulence, and how in parallel plants have developed mechanisms to protect themselves against these interferences. Then, we discuss the striking finding that the recognition of pathogen effectors can provoke a sustained activation of the MAPKs MPK3/6, extensively analyzing its implications in terms of regulation and functions. In line with this, we also address the question of how a durable activation of MAPKs might affect the scope of their substrates, and thereby mediate the emergence of possibly new ETI-specific responses. By highlighting the sometimes conflicting or missing data, our intention is to spur further research in order to both consolidate and expand our understanding of MAPK signaling in immunity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Sickness and in Health)

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26 pages, 2178 KiB

Open AccessReview

Receptor-Like Protein Kinases Function Upstream of MAPKs in Regulating Plant Development

by Zhe Wang and Xiaoping Gou

Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2020, 21(20), 7638; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/ijms21207638 - 15 Oct 2020

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6929

Abstract

Mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) are a group of protein kinase broadly involved in various signal pathways in eukaryotes. In plants, MAPK cascades regulate growth, development, stress responses and immunity by perceiving signals from the upstream regulators and transmitting the phosphorylation signals to the downstream signaling components. To reveal the interactions between MAPK cascades and their upstream regulators is important for understanding the functional mechanisms of MAPKs in the life span of higher plants. Typical receptor-like protein kinases (RLKs) are plasma membrane-located to perceive endogenous or exogenous signal molecules in regulating plant growth, development and immunity. MAPK cascades bridge the extracellular signals and intracellular transcription factors in many RLK-mediated signaling pathways. This review focuses on the current findings that RLKs regulate plant development through MAPK cascades and discusses questions that are worth investigating in the near future. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Plant Mitogen Activated Protein Kinases in Sickness and in Health)

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