Channelrhodopsin-mediated optogenetics highlights a central role of depolarization-dependent plant proton pumps.

ABSTRACT: In plants, environmental stressors trigger plasma membrane depolarizations. Being electrically interconnected via plasmodesmata, proper functional dissection of electrical signaling by electrophysiology is basically impossible. The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii evolved blue light-excited channelrhodopsins (ChR1, 2) to navigate. When expressed in excitable nerve and muscle cells, ChRs can be used to control the membrane potential via illumination. In Arabidopsis plants, we used the algal ChR2-light switches as tools to stimulate plasmodesmata-interconnected photosynthetic cell networks by blue light and monitor the subsequent plasma membrane electrical responses. Blue-dependent stimulations of ChR2 expressing mesophyll cells, resting around -160 to -180 mV, reproducibly depolarized t

SUBMITTER: Reyer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7456130 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature