Regulation of Plant Growth and Development by Extracellular Nucleotides - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 225

Differences between the results of Lew and Dearnaley (2000) and Demid-
chik et al. (2003) can be attributed mainly to the different methodologies
used (e.g., intact vs. excised roots; root hair response vs. whole root re-
sponse; calcium green vs. aequorin reporter), but both results argued
strongly for the conclusion that ATP is a signaling agent in plants, just
as it is in animals. Both results, however, begged the question: Do these
nucleotide-induced changes lead to downstream responses that are known
to be regulated by ∆

[Ca 2+ ] cyt ?
A clear answer to this question came from the results of Jeter et al.
(2004). These authors, using the same type of aequorin-expressing Ara-
bidopsis plants employed by Demidchik et al. (2003), found that applied
nucleotides could induce significant increases in [Ca 2+ ] cyt in intact Ara-
bidopsis seedlings, with most of the luminescent signal coming from the
aerial parts of the plant. They used similar controls as Demidchik et al.
(2003), including all of the naturally occurring ATP derivatives such as
AMP and phosphate, but using different poorly hydrolyzable nucleotide
P2-receptor agonists (ATP

γ β S, and AMPS). They observed similar

results, demonstrating other plant tissues besides the root can also respond
to exogenously applied nucleotide derivatives, and confirming the speci-
ficity of the nucleotide effects. Further studies with calcium flux inhibitors,
especially the use of the calcium chelator 1,2-bis(2-aminophenoxy)ethane-
N , N , N ', N '-tetraacetic acid (BAPTA), strongly argue for an influx of cal-
cium from the ECM, and, together with previous reports, suggest the pres-
ence of a plasma membrane-localized ion channel mediating the increased
[Ca 2+ ] cyt . The magnitude of the

S, ADP

∆ [Ca 2+ ] cyt induced by nucleotides in in-

tact seedlings was lower than that observed by Demidchik et al. (2003) in
excised roots (Jeter et al. 2004). This and the apparent higher threshold
for induction observed in the seedlings may have been due to intrinsic
differences in the responsiveness of the two tissues, or to differences in the
protocolsemployed(e.g.,excisedvs.intacttissue;10mMCa 2+ in measur-
ing medium for roots vs. less than 100 µM Ca 2+ in measuring medium for
seedlings).
Jeter et al. (2004) also documented that the eATP treatments induced
downstream gene expression changes known to influence hormone and
stress responses, thus linking the initial [Ca 2+ ] cyt changes to later genetic
changes that could mediate the growth and development of responding
plants. The application of 500 µM ATP or ADP, but not that of AMP or buffer,
induced an increased abundance of messenger RNAs encoding various
mitogen-activated protein kinases (ATMEKK1, ATMPK3, ATPK19), and the
ethylene-related ERF2, ERF3, ERF4, and ACS6 genes. These gene expression
changes were partially blocked in cells pretreated with Gd 3+ or a calcium
chelator, revealing their dependence on an increase in [Ca 2+ ] cyt .Thesame
genes had been shown to be up-regulated by touch and osmotic stresses