Aug 2026· Plant, Cell and Environment· 0 citations· 94 references
Medicine
TL;DR
This review synthesizes current knowledge on the structural characteristics and functional roles of CaMs and CMLs, emphasizing their pivotal contributions to plant development, stress resilience, and secondary metabolism, and provides a theoretical framework for leveraging calcium signaling components in molecular breeding programs aimed at developing elite crop varieties.
Abstract
Calcium (Ca2+) acts as a ubiquitous secondary messenger in plants, orchestrating adaptive responses to developmental cues and environmental fluctuations. The decoding of these signatures is primarily mediated by calmodulin (CaM) and plant-specific calmodulin-like (CML) protein family. While canonical CaMs are evolutionarily conserved and feature high-affinity-binding motifs, CMLs exhibit substantial sequence divergence and structural variability, enabling functional specialization. This review synthesizes current knowledge on the structural characteristics and functional roles of CaMs and CMLs, emphasizing their pivotal contributions to plant development, stress resilience, and secondary metabolism. We highlight the significance of spatial compartmentalization, wherein the discrete subcellular partitioning of CaM/CMLs-exemplified by chloroplast and nuclear populations-facilitates the refined modulation of photosynthetic efficiency and transcriptional reprogramming. Furthermore, we discuss recent advances in manipulating CaM/CML-mediated pathways to enhance agronomic traits, including yield stability and stress tolerance. Ultimately, these insights provide a theoretical framework for leveraging calcium signaling components in molecular breeding programs aimed at developing elite crop varieties.
Calmodulin (CaM) and calmodulin-like (CML) proteins, as calcium sensors, are key modulators of plant signaling and development, yet their roles in regulating seed-specific transcription factors remain underexplored. Here, we investigated the interaction landscape between the rice seed-specific MIKC-type MADS-box transcription factor OsMADS29 and the CaM/CML family. Phylogenetic and expression analyses identified 40 CaM/CML genes expressed during seed development, of which 28 were cloned for interaction studies. Bimolecular fluorescence complementation assays revealed that OsMADS29 interacts with 22 CaM/CML proteins, showing distinct cytoplasmic or dual cytoplasmic-nuclear localization patterns, while yeast two-hybrid assays confirmed 20 of these interactions. Further, four additional MADS-box proteins (OsMADS7, 8, 14, and 15) also demonstrated interactions with CaM and selected CMLs, indicating a broader regulatory network. Our interaction data suggest a potential role of CaM/CML proteins in modulating OsMADS29 subcellular localization, likely influencing its dimerization and regulatory functions during seed development. This study establishes a conceptual framework linking calcium signaling to the regulation of MADS-box transcription factors and provides a foundation for future functional analyses of how CaM/CML interactions influence MADS-mediated transcriptional control during rice seed development.
Neelima Boora, Ridhi Khurana, Vibha Verma et al.· The FEBS Journal· 0 citations
Transcriptional regulation is the cornerstone of plant developmental plasticity and environmental resilience. Central to these processes are the B-Box (BBX) proteins, a family of zinc-finger transcription factors that have emerged as pivotal signaling hubs. While their roles were initially defined through light signaling and photoperiodic flowering in Arabidopsis, recent advances have repositioned BBX proteins as integrative nodes across a vast array of physiological processes, including seed germination, thermomorphogenesis, shade avoidance and senescence, as well as responses to both abiotic and biotic stresses. The remarkable functional diversity of BBX proteins emerges from a highly orchestrated, hierarchical regulatory landscape. This review synthesizes recent progress in how BBX activity is modulated through chromatin remodeling, alternative splicing and E3-ligase-mediated protein stability, among other mechanisms. We propose that understanding BBX function requires a shift from identifying isolated target genes to decoding the combinatorial logic of their interactions. Deciphering this interactome under fluctuating environments not only deepens our knowledge of the molecular mechanisms regulating plant plasticity but also identifies highly promising targets for the precision breeding of climate-resilient crops.
J. Botto, G. Gómez-Ocampo, C. Barraza· Plant physiology and biochem...· 0 citations
The DNA-binding with one finger (Dof) family comprises plant-specific transcription factors that serve as key hubs regulating plant growth, development, stress responses, and metabolism. Advances in multi-species genome sequencing have deepened our understanding of the structure and function of this family. This review systematically describes the conserved structural features of Dof proteins and their expansion patterns during plant evolution. It further focuses on the molecular mechanisms and regulatory networks underlying organ development, growth coordination, stress responses, and metabolic regulation. Comprehensive analysis reveals that the Dof family exhibits conserved core functions across evolution, along with pronounced species specificity. In terms of regulatory mechanisms, Dof proteins integrate external signals and internal transduction pathways to coordinate growth, development, and stress defense. They achieve this through multiple modes, including transcriptional regulation of target genes and protein–protein interactions. This review highlights the pivotal roles of the Dof family across diverse developmental stages and physiological processes. It thus provides a theoretical foundation for dissecting its biological mechanisms and advancing molecular breeding in crops.
Liang Yang, Xiangkai Guo, Kaitong Wang et al.· Horticulture Research· 0 citations
Regulatory mechanisms of several types of PTMs, including phosphorylation, ubiquitination, SUMOylation, acetylation, crotonylation, and S-acylation, in the cold stress signaling pathway are summarized.
A review of WD40 repeat proteins strengthens current findings relating their structural properties, molecular mechanisms, and functional diversity, underscoring their potential as targets for developing stress-resilient, high-yield crops in a changing climate.
Submergence and flooding impose severe crop losses through hypoxic stress. The Membrane Attack Complex/Perforin (MACPF) superfamily proteins function as pore-forming effectors in development and immunity across eukaryotic organisms, yet their role in plant hypoxia responses remains largely unexplored. Here, we identify two MACPF proteins in pepper (Capsicum annuum), CaMACPF1 and CaMACPF6, as positive regulators of hypoxia tolerance. CaMACPF1 and CaMACPF6 localize to endoplasmic reticulum-plasma membrane contact sites (EPCS) and the Golgi apparatus, with CaMACPF1 additionally detected in the nucleus and plasma membrane. When either protein was overexpressed, plants showed markedly better endurance under hypoxic stress and submergence, with accumulating less reactive oxygen species (ROS). Both proteins triggered jasmonic acid (JA) biosynthesis under oxygen deprivation, yet only CaMACPF6 specifically redirected auxin metabolism by converting indole-3-pyruvic acid (IPA) to indole-3-lactic acid (ILA). Taken together, these findings suggest that CaMACPF proteins may act as molecular switches linking EPCS dynamics to phytohormone signaling during hypoxic adaptation.
Yi-Xian Guo, Sirui Ma, Yang Yu et al.· Plant physiology and biochem...· 0 citations