Lessons from Comparison of Hypoxia Signaling in Plants and Mammals

Abstract

Hypoxia is an important stress for organisms, including plants and mammals. In plants, hypoxia can be the consequence of flooding and causes important crop losses worldwide. In mammals, hypoxia stress may be the result of pathological conditions. Understanding the regulation of responses to hypoxia offers insights into novel approaches for crop improvement, particularly for the development of flooding-tolerant crops and for producing better therapeutics for hypoxia-related diseases such as inflammation and cancer. Despite their evolutionary distance, plants and mammals deploy strikingly similar mechanisms to sense and respond to the different aspects of hypoxia-related stress, including low oxygen levels and the resulting energy crisis, nutrient depletion, and oxidative stress. Over the last two decades, the ubiquitin/proteasome system and the ubiquitin-like protein SUMO have been identified as key regulators that act in concert to regulate core aspects of responses to hypoxia in plants and mammals. Here, we review ubiquitin and SUMO-dependent mechanisms underlying the regulation of hypoxia response in plants and mammals. By comparing and contrasting these mechanisms in plants and mammals, this review seeks to pinpoint conceptually similar mechanisms but also highlight future avenues of research at the junction between different fields of research.

Biochemical Analysis to Understand the Flooding Tolerance of Mutant Soybean Irradiated with Gamma Rays

“…In this study, because proteins related to the ubiquitin–proteasome system increased and decreased in the wild type and the mutant line, respectively, under flooding stress, the accumulation of ubiquitin was analyzed. The ubiquitin-proteasome system has been identified as key regulator that acts in concert to regulate core aspects of responses to hypoxia in plants [ 23 ]. Under flooding, plant-derived smoke, which shows flooding tolerance, induced the inhibition of the ubiquitin–proteasome pathway and led to sacrifice-for-survival-mechanism-driven degradation of the root tips in soybean [ 24 ].…”

Multi‐stress resilience in plants recovering from submergence

“…Several recent reviews summarize the remarkable similarity between the oxygen‐sensing systems of plants and animals in response to hypoxia (Doorly and Graciet, 2021 ; Gibbs and Holdsworth, 2020 ; Licausi et al ., 2020 ; Masson et al ., 2019 ). Here, we explore similarities and differences between plants and animals during post‐hypoxic reoxygenation (Figure 2 ).…”

“…We also summarize recent major advances in our understanding of plant post‐submergence recovery. Moreover, in view of the high conservation of oxygen‐sensing systems in response to hypoxia (Doorly and Graciet, 2021 ; Gibbs and Holdsworth, 2020 ; Licausi et al ., 2020 ; Masson et al ., 2019 ), we discuss some similarities in reoxygenation stress responses between plants and animals. Finally, we highlight current knowledge about the complex trait of resilience to post‐submergence stress and propose future research directions in this field.…”

Meta-analysis of RNA Sequencing Data of Arabidopsis and Rice under Hypoxia

“…Flooding can be classified into waterlogging (partial coverage of water) and submergence (complete coverage of water), both of which limit oxygen availability to plants and lead to hypoxia [2]. Considering the importance of molecular oxygen in eukaryotes, several studies have elucidated and compared the molecular mechanisms by which plants and animals respond to hypoxia [3,4]. In metazoans, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) is a transcription factor (TF) that regulates the transcriptional changes induced by oxygen availability [3,5].…”