No abstract

Over the last decade, plasmodesmata (PD) symplasmic nano-channels were reported to be involved in various cell biology activities to prop up within plant growth and development as well as environmental stresses. Indeed, this is highly influenced by their native structure, which is lined with the plasma membrane (PM), conferring a suitable biological landscape for numerous plant receptors that correspond to signaling pathways. However, there are more than six hundred members of Arabidopsis thaliana membrane-localized receptors and over one thousand receptors in rice have been identified, many of which are likely to respond to the external stimuli. This review focuses on the class of plasmodesmal-receptor like proteins (PD-RLPs)/plasmodesmal-receptor-like kinases (PD-RLKs) found in planta. We summarize and discuss the current knowledge regarding RLPs/RLKs that reside at PD–PM channels in response to plant growth, development, and stress adaptation.

The plasma membranes encapsulated in the plasmodesmata (PDs) with symplasmic nano-channels contain abundant lipid rafts, which are enriched by sphingolipids and sterols. The attenuation of sterol compositions has demonstrated the role played by lipid raft integrity in the intercellular trafficking of glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored PD proteins, particularly affecting in the callose enhancement. The presence of callose at PD is tightly attributed to the callose metabolic enzymes, callose synthases (CalSs) and β-1,3-glucanases (BGs) in regulating callose accumulation and callose degradation, respectively. Sphingolipids have been implicated in signaling and membrane protein trafficking, however the underlying processes linking sphingolipid compositions to the control of symplasmic apertures remain unknown. A wide variety of sphingolipids in plants prompts us to investigate which sphingolipid molecules are important in regulating symplasmic apertures. Here, we demonstrate that perturbations of sphingolipid metabolism by introducing several potential sphingolipid (SL) pathway inhibitors and genetically modifying SL contents from two independent SL pathway mutants are able to modulate callose deposition to control symplasmic connectivity. Our data from pharmacological and genetic approaches show that the alteration in glucosylhydroxyceramides (GlcHCers) particularly disturb the secretory machinery for GPI-anchored PdBG2 protein, resulting in an over accumulated callose. Moreover, our results reveal that SL-enriched lipid rafts link symplasmic channeling to PD callose homeostasis by controlling the targeting of GPI-anchored PdBG2. This study elevates our understanding of the molecular linkage underlying intracellular trafficking and precise targeting to specific destination of GPI-anchored PD proteins incorporated with GlcHCers contents.

In plants, cells are connected by symplasmic tunnels, plasmodesmata (PD). PD facilitate intercellular trafficking of essential molecules such as proteins, sugars, hormones, and RNAs, the movement of which is controlled by the permeability of PD to the molecule (Zambryski, 2008). One of the regulatory components in PD permeability is callose, a polysaccharide in the form of β-1,3-glucan that is localized in the neck region of PD (Sager & Lee, 2018;Wu et al., 2018). Callose accumulation is dynamic, controlled by the competitive activity of

Plasmodesmata (PD) are cytoplasmic canals that facilitate intercellular communication and molecular exchange between adjacent plant cells. PD-associated proteins are considered as one of the foremost factors in regulating PD function that is critical for plant development and stress responses. Although its potential to be used for crop engineering is enormous, our understanding of PD biology was relatively limited to model plants, demanding further studies in crop systems. Recently developed genome editing techniques such as Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats/CRISPR associate protein (CRISPR/Cas) might confer powerful approaches to dissect the molecular function of PD components and to engineer elite crops. Here, we assess several aspects of PD functioning to underline and highlight the potential applications of CRISPR/Cas that provide new insight into PD biology and crop improvement.