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Plant Biology

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Osmotic pressure

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Life Behind The Wall: Sensing Mechanical Cues In Plants, Olivier Hamant, Elizabeth S. Haswell Jul 2017

Life Behind The Wall: Sensing Mechanical Cues In Plants, Olivier Hamant, Elizabeth S. Haswell

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

There is increasing evidence that all cells sense mechanical forces in order to perform their functions. In animals, mechanotransduction has been studied during the establishment of cell polarity, fate, and division in single cells, and increasingly is studied in the context of a multicellular tissue. What about plant systems? Our goal in this review is to summarize what is known about the perception of mechanical cues in plants, and to provide a brief comparison with animals.


Mechanosensitive Channel Msl8 Regulates Osmotic Forces During Pollen Hydration And Germination, Eric S. Hamilton, Gregory S. Jensen, Grigory Maksaev, Andrew Katims, Ashley M. Sherp, Elizabeth S. Haswell Oct 2015

Mechanosensitive Channel Msl8 Regulates Osmotic Forces During Pollen Hydration And Germination, Eric S. Hamilton, Gregory S. Jensen, Grigory Maksaev, Andrew Katims, Ashley M. Sherp, Elizabeth S. Haswell

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Pollen grains undergo dramatic changes in cellular water potential as they deliver the male germ line to female gametes, and it has been proposed that mechanosensitive ion channels may sense the resulting mechanical stress. Here, we identify and characterize MscS-like 8 (MSL8), a pollen-specific, membrane tension–gated ion channel required for pollen to survive the hypoosmotic shock of rehydration and for full male fertility. MSL8 negatively regulates pollen germination but is required for cellular integrity during germination and tube growth. MSL8 thus senses and responds to changes in membrane tension associated with pollen hydration and germination. These data further suggest that …


The Ongoing Search For The Molecular Basis Of Plant Osmosensing, Elizabeth S. Haswell, Paul E. Verslues Apr 2015

The Ongoing Search For The Molecular Basis Of Plant Osmosensing, Elizabeth S. Haswell, Paul E. Verslues

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

Introduction: Cell viability and metabolism depend on cytoplasmic water and solute content, and organisms have evolved mechanisms to sense changes in cell water content, solute concentrations, cell volume, and/or turgor. This Perspective addresses the response to osmotic challenge in land plants and describes their special dependence on cellular water status for growth and development. Understanding how plants cope with water limitation may allow us to mitigate the agricultural effects of drought, a critical limitation on global crop productivity that is likely to increase in severity as the climate changes (Long and Ort, 2010). The signaling pathways by which plants respond …