Oral Presentation International Plant Molecular Biology Conference 2024

Plant Peptide-Receptor Modules: Exploring their Role as Signal Transducers in Responding Environmental Stresses (#512)

Akie Shimotohno 1
  1. Nagoya University, Nagoya, AICHI, Japan

Sessile plants exhibit remarkable adaptive capacities of sensing their growth conditions and alleviating harmful effects of stresses for their survival. Recent scientific discoveries underscore the pivotal role of intracellular signaling cascades, particularly those acted through post-translational modifications, in responding to environmental changes. Nevertheless, the precise molecular mechanisms that activate and regulate the transduction of these signaling pathways remain largely elusive. In the realm of animal biology,  peptides function as signaling molecules to transimit extracellular information to the targeted cell through binding to its cell-surface receptors. Conversely, plant peptides were initially recognized for their role in maintaining the population of stem cells, essential for organ development. Only recently has their potential as signal transducers came to light. In plant genome, over 1000 potential secreted peptides are encoded and approximately 3% of the protein-coding sequences have been identified as putative receptor-like kinases. However, the majority of their biological functions and regulatory mechanisms remain enigmatic. Here, we will discuss how the interaction of plant peptides with their specific receptor complexes function as transmitters to relay environmental signals to plant cells. Moreover, we found that the interaction between peptides and receptors facilitates the phosphorylation of specific cytosolic kinases to initiate  intracellular signaling cascade essential for plant cells to take the swift action in response of  environmental changes. Our investigation provides mechanistic insights that advance our understanding of how plants perceive and react to challenging environments.