We have employed suspension cultured aequorintransformed tobacco cells to examine the involvement of Ca 2؉ in signal transduction of the oxidative burst. Use of cultured cells for this purpose was validated by demonstrating that the cells responded to cold shock quantitatively and qualitatively similarly to the intact transgenic plants from which they were derived. Stimulation of the oxidative burst in the cell suspension was achieved by administration of oligogalacturonic acid, Mas-7 (a peptide known to activate G proteins and Ca 2؉ fluxes), hypo-osmotic stress, or harpin (a protein from the pathogenic bacterium Erwinia amylovora). The latter failed to promote any detectable increase in cytoplasmic Ca 2؉ concentration, whereas each of the former three triggered a rapid rise in cytosolic Ca 2؉ followed by a return within seconds to basal Ca 2؉ levels. Peak Ca 2؉ concentrations induced by the former three elicitors were ϳ0.7, 1.4, and 1.3 M, respectively. Three lines of evidence suggest that the observed Ca 2؉ pulses are essential to transduction of the oxidative burst signals by their respective elicitors: (i) inhibition of the Ca 2؉ transients with Ca 2؉ chelators or Ca 2؉ channel blockers prevented expression of the oxidative burst, (ii) introduction of exogenous Ca 2؉ into the same cells initiated the burst even in the absence of other inducers of the response, and (iii) the observed Ca 2؉ transients often returned to near basal levels well before any H 2 O 2 synthesis could be detected, suggesting that the Ca 2؉ influx is required to communicate the burst signal but not maintain the defense response. These data suggest that Ca 2؉ pulses serve frequently, but not invariably, to transduce an oxidative burst signal.The oxidative burst constitutes one of the more rapid responses of a plant cell to pathogen attack (1). Within minutes of pathogen recognition, reactive oxygen species are generated that may promote cross-linking and lignification of the cell wall (2, 3), transcription of defense-related genes (4, 5), secondary metabolite biosynthesis (6), the hypersensitive response (4,7,8), and direct pathogen cytotoxicity (9, 10), depending on the plant species examined. In cultured cell systems, the oxidative burst can be promoted by isolated elicitors including harpin (11, 12), oligouronides (13), elicitins (14), purified fungal peptides (15), and other molecules from the extracts of pathogens (7,16). Abiotic stimuli such as mechanical stress (17), the pesticide fenthion (18), cold shock (19), phosphatase inhibitors (4, 20), and hypo-osmotic stress (17) can also induce biosynthesis of reactive oxygen species in plant cells.Because of its rapid expression, ease of assay, and similarity to the analogous defense response in human neutrophils (21), the oxidative burst has recently served as a model for exploring signal transduction pathways in plants. As the numbers of elicitors examined have risen, it has become increasingly clear that different elicitors may inaugurate independent signal transduction pathways that...