Glutathione triggers leaf-to-leaf, calcium-based plant defense signaling
Animals rely on nervous systems to cope with environmental variability, whereas plants are characterized by lack of nervous system but still have evolved systemic communication systems through signaling molecules that trigger long-distance defense signaling events when encountered with environmental challenges. Here, our genetic screening of the previously constructed hairpin RNA-based Arabidopsis library identifies a glutathione (GSH)-deficient mutant that has high accumulation of glutamate (Glu), a previously defined wound signal essential for activating plant defense, but disharmoniously exhibits attenuation of defense signaling events. We further uncover GSH as a critical signaling molecule that relies on GLUTAMATE RECEPTOR-LIKE 3.3 (GLR3.3) to trigger long-distance calcium-based defense signaling events in plants. Our findings offer new insights into highly sophisticated systemic defense systems evolved by plants to defend against herbivory and pathogen invasion.
Authors
- Xiaoyi Shan
- Jianbin Yan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7934-8808)
- Haidong Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6476-5748)
- Ran Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6647-0780)
- Daoxin Xie (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0493-4295)
- Shuai Hu
- Rui Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8041-7135)
- Guo‐Liang Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8877-3064)
- Wei‐Cheng Wang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7277-3702)
- Yongfang Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3017-7205)
- Xiaoxi Du (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1500-1247)
- Hao Lou
Institutions
- Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- King Center (US)
- Agricultural Genomics Institute at Shenzhen (CN)
- Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- China National Hybrid Rice R&D Central Hunan Hybrid Rice Reserch Center (CN)
- Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CN)
- Hunan Rice Research Institute (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (CN)
- Center for Life Sciences (CN)
- The Ohio State University (US)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Communications
- Published
- 2025-02-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57239-1
- Citations
- 9
- Primary Topic
- Plant and Biological Electrophysiology Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 15.75
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- China Postdoctoral Science Foundation