Touch-Responsive Behaviors and Gene Expression in Plants - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 253

in overall stiffness because the transgenics generate additional xylem tissue
as apparent compensation for the material defects (Hepworth and Vincent
1999). These experimentally induced conditions are probably closely re-
lated to those that occur during natural progressive plant growth. Increased
tissue strain would undoubtedly occur as plant size increases if there were
no accompanying compensatory changes. Indeed, increased height in Ara-
bidopsis is correlated with enhanced xylem production (Ko et al. 2004). The
tissue alterations are likely induced by growth-associated strain increases.
Consistent with these ideas, enhanced cambium differentiation can be in-
duced by applying weight to immature Arabidopsis inflorescences (Ko et al.
2004), and cultured callus cells differentiate with cambium-like character-
istics when subjected to compressive forces (Lintilhac and Vesecky 1984;
Barnett and Asante 2000). Similar compensatory changes likely occur at
a cellular level and can be observed when cell wall composition is altered
by either mutation or inhibitors. Reduction in cellulose leads to enhanced
pectin deposition (His et al. 2001); loss of lignin results in overaccumula-
tion of cellulose (Hu et al. 1999). Thus, plants likely use strain as a measure
of structural integrity at both the tissue and the cellular levels and can
activate pathways that reinforce walls, tissues or organs in compensatory
manners. The mechanosensory pathway is therefore undoubtedly critical
for overall plant growth and development.
17.4
Mechanosensitive Gene Expression
What are the growth alterations that result in thigmomorphogenesis and
how are they triggered? One clue may come from the dramatic changes
in gene expression documented to occur very rapidly in plants subjected
to mechanical perturbation. The first touch-inducible genes were discov-
ered rather unintentionally (Braam and Davis 1990) and since then many
genes have been found to show mechanosensitive expression regulation
(reviewed in Lee et al. 2005). Microarray technology permits a deliberate
approach to investigating the prevalence of touch-inducible genes in the
plant genome. The Affymetrix chip (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA, USA) for
the Arabidopsis thaliana genome enables the probing of 22,810 genes for
inducible expression. Over 2.5% of the total, 589 genes, are upregulated in
expression at least twofold within 30 min of a touch stimulation (Lee et al.
2005). Expression of 171 genes is reduced (Lee et al. 2005).
In addition to many genes of unknown function, genes encoding poten-
tial calcium (Ca 2+ )-binding proteins, cell wall synthesis and modification
enzymes, protein kinases, transcription factors and disease-resistance pro-
teins are most highly enriched in representation among those with twofold