Methanol is not only a by-product of PME activities, and our data suggest that [Ca2+]cyt variations could participate in signalling processes induced by methanol upstream of plant defence responses.

Indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) is the major natural auxin involved in the regulation of a variety of growth and developmental processes such as division, elongation, and polarity determination in growing plant cells. It has been shown that dividing and/or elongating plant cells accompanies the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a number of reports have suggested that hormonal actions can be mediated by ROS through ROS-mediated opening of ion channels. Here, we surveyed the link between the action of IAA, oxidative burst, and calcium channel activation in a transgenic cells of rice expressing aequorin in the cytosol. Application of IAA to the cells induced a rapid and transient generation of superoxide which was followed by a transient increase in cytosolic Ca(2+) concentration ([Ca(2+)]c). The IAA-induced [Ca(2+)]c elevation was inhibited by Ca(2+) channel blockers and a Ca(2+) chelator. Furthermore, ROS scavengers effectively blocked the action of IAA on [Ca(2+)]c elevation.

Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a dipolar aprotic solvent widely used in biological assays. Here, we observed that DMSO enhanced the hypo-osmotically induced increases in the concentration of Ca 2+ in cytosolic and nucleic compartments in the transgenic cell-lines of tobacco (BY-2) expressing aequorin.

Changes in Ca concentrations in cytosol ([Ca]) or nucleus ([Ca]) may play some vital roles in plants under hypoosmotic shock (Hypo-OS). Here, we observed that Hypo-OS induces biphasic increases in [Ca] and [Ca] in two tobacco cell lines (BY-2) expressing apoaequorin either in the cytosol or in the nucleus. Both [Ca] and [Ca] were sensitively modulated by the inhibitors of calmodulin and protein kinases, supporting the view that calmodulin suppresses the 1 peaks and and protein kinases enhance 2 peaks in [Ca] and [Ca]. Data also suggested that the 1 and 2 events depend on the internal and extracellular Ca sources, respectively.

The use of different lights to modulate garlic pigmentation has been demonstrated and, in particular, the utilisation of red/green/blue lights and lower temperature resulted in higher red/pink pigments production supporting the hypothesis that this process involves more than one light to be fully performed and the low temperature is a condition that influences the formation of these products. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.