Touch-Responsive Behaviors and Gene Expression in Plants - Communication in Plants: Neuronal Aspects of Plant Life - page 254

or greater touch-inducible expression (Lee et al. 2005). Because calmod-
ulin (CaM) and CaM-like proteins were among the first touch-inducible
genes discovered (Braam and Davis 1990), it was not unexpected that these
would be among those identified by the microarray as touch-inducible.
Overall there is a 3.3-fold enrichment of Ca 2+ -binding protein encoding
genes among the genes upregulated at least twofold by touch (Braam and
Davis 1990). Furthermore, Ca 2+ has been implicated as a second messenger
in mechanosensory signaling (Batiza et al. 1996; Calaghan and White 1999).
Touch and wind trigger rapid cellular Ca 2+ increases in plants (Knight et al.
1991). Thus, expression upregulation of Ca 2+ -binding protein genes may be
the result of a feedback pathway designed to produce more Ca 2+ receptors
when stimuli that use Ca 2+ as a second messenger are perceived. Further-
more,becausetheseproteinsarepotentialCa 2+ sensors (McCormack and
Braam 2003), they may function to transduce Ca 2+ signals into cellular re-
sponses through Ca 2+ -dependent changes in target protein activities. The
microarray and subsequent real-time PCR data indicate that expression lev-
els of at least one CAM ( CAM2 )oftheseven CAM sand14ofthe50 CML s
are significantly upregulated by touch stimulation (Lee et al. 2005). The
physiological functions of these touch-inducible genes encoding potential
Ca 2+ sensors remain largely unknown. However, transgenic plants with
reduced CML24/TCH2 protein accumulation are defective in germination
and seedling responses to abscisic acid, day-length regulated transition to
flowering and growth inhibition induced by various salts (Delk et al. 2005).
Thigmomorphogenesis and the accompanying changes in structural
properties would be predicted to require cell wall modifications. Cell
walls are a major determinant of plant tissue integrity and form and thus
changes occurring in thigmomorphogenesislikelyinvolvealterationsto
the wall. Indeed, genes encoding cell wall synthesis and modification en-
zymes are among those most highly represented in the group of touch-
inducible genes, undergoing a 2.5-fold increase in enrichment among the
touch-inducible genes (Lee et al. 2005). Thus, touch-inducible expression
of cell-wall-associated enzymes may underlie mechanostimulus-evoked
morphogenetic changes.
Transcription factors and protein kinases are regulatory proteins whose
production levels are often themselves regulated in response to diverse
stimuli. Since these proteins can act as cellular switches to control physio-
logical changes, their genes are typically among those most highly altered
in expression in microarray experiments. Indeed, the touch-inducible gene
cluster includes approximately twofold enrichment in both transcription
factor and protein kinase genes (Lee et al. 2005).
Perhaps more unexpectedly, a major class of genes upregulated in ex-
pression by touch includes those that have been implicated in disease
resistance (Lee et al. 2005). There is some evidence that suggests that