The plant cytoskeleton takes center stage in abiotic stress responses and resilience

Abstract

Stress resilience behaviours in plants are defensive mechanisms that develop under adverse environmental conditions to promote growth, development and yield. Over the past decades, improving stress resilience, especially in crop species, has been a focus of intense research for global food security and economic growth. Plants have evolved specific mechanisms to sense external stress and transmit information to the cell interior and generate appropriate responses. Plant cytoskeleton, comprising microtubules and actin filaments, takes a center stage in stress‐induced signalling pathways, either as a direct target or as a signal transducer. In the past few years, it has become apparent that the function of the plant cytoskeleton and other associated proteins are not merely limited to elementary processes of cell growth and proliferation, but they also function in stress response and resilience. This review summarizes recent advances in the role of plant cytoskeleton and associated proteins in abiotic stress management. We provide a thorough overview of the mechanisms that plant cells employ to withstand different abiotic stimuli such as hypersalinity, dehydration, high temperature and cold, among others. We also discuss the crucial role of the plant cytoskeleton in organellar positioning under the influence of high light intensity.

Radip Light-Induced Phosphorylation Changes in Microtubule Related Proteins in Arabidopsis

“…Association to MTs of WDL1, WDL4 and IQD32 is supported experimentally (Yuen et al, 2003;Hamada et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2013). Among the predicted MAPs in Table 1, PHOT1 is associated with MTs in Arabidopsis in vivo (Kaiserli et al, 2009;Sullivan et al, 2010), and has recently been described as a cytoskeleton associated protein involved in organelle positioning under light stress (Kumar et al, 2023). IREH1 controls root skewing and MTs network (Yue et al, 2019); PROTEIN CROWDED NUCLEI 1 (CRWN1) links the nucleoskeleton and cytoskeleton (Sakamoto & Takagi, 2013;Wang et al, 2013); and DAA1 belongs to the same meiotic clade of AAA+ proteins such as katanin and spastin which are involved in MT severing and disassembly (Baas et al, 2005).…”

Temperature‐smart plants: A new horizon with omics‐driven plant breeding

“…Indirect impacts include enzyme denaturation in mitochondria and chloroplasts, protein synthesis inactivation, and disrupted cellular membrane integrity (Ding et al, 2020b; Wu et al, 2022; Sharma et al, 2022). Furthermore, HS affects microtubule organization (critical for cell division) and disrupts microtubule aster formation in mitotic cells (Mareri and Cai, 2022; Kumar et al, 2023b). Heat stress disrupts the reproductive phase of crop plants more than the vegetative stage, resulting in yield loss due to pollen infertility and subsequent reduced fruit or seed development (Aghamolki et al, 2014; Cheabu et al, 2018; Ahmad et al, 2023).…”

Microtubule Regulation in Plants: From Morphological Development to Stress Adaptation

“…Sessile plants have evolved specific mechanisms to perceive environmental stresses and generate appropriate responses. The plant cytoskeleton plays central roles in stress-induced signaling pathways, either as a direct target or a signal transducer [ 157 ]. Cell wall remodeling and MT rearrangements are essential for plants to adapt to growth and development in response to environmental stresses [ 158 ].…”