Aquaporin-mediated stress signaling cascade in plants
Hanchen Tang,
Yachun Su,
Shaolin Yang,
Qibin Wu,
Youxiong Que
Affiliations
Hanchen Tang
Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Yachun Su
Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
Shaolin Yang
Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China; Yunnan Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Genetic Improvement, Sugarcane Research Institute, Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Kaiyuan, Yunnan 661600, China
Qibin Wu
National Key Laboratory for Tropical Crop Breeding, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Sanya 572024, China; Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China; Corresponding authors at: National Key Laboratory for Tropical Crop Breeding, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Sanya 572024, China.
Youxiong Que
National Key Laboratory for Tropical Crop Breeding, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Sanya 572024, China; Key Laboratory of Sugarcane Biology and Genetic Breeding, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, National Engineering Research Center for Sugarcane, College of Agriculture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China; Corresponding authors at: National Key Laboratory for Tropical Crop Breeding, Institute of Tropical Bioscience and Biotechnology, Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences, Sanya 572024, China.
Environments affected plant growth and development, while their change resulted in various stresses in higher plants. Aquaporins (AQPs) were the major intrinsic proteins (MIPs), which participated in the water channel, and kept the water balance for cells both inside and outside. This review focused on category, structure, regulation and stress responses of AQPs in higher plants. Briefly, AQPs were made up of five loop structures that connected with six α-helical transmembrane structures, and contained two Asn-Pro-Ala (NPA-motifs). They could be divided into eight subfamilies, and in higher plants, research concentrated mainly on plasma membrane intrinsic proteins (PIPs), tonoplast membrane intrinsic proteins (TIPs), nodulin26-like major intrinsic proteins (NIPs) and small and basic intrinsic proteins (SIPs). It is interesting that AQPs involved in water, nutrition, CO2 and H2O2 transport, and were a part of regulatory elements for biotic and abiotic stress responses. Furthermore, the activity of AQPs was affected by the transcriptional regulation, protein modification, potential of hydrogen (pH) and signal transduction. Taken together, we highlight the research progress of AQPs in higher plants, and forecasts the function model of AQPs in biotic and abiotic stresses, which should be helpful for further investigation on AQPs-mediated stress signaling cascade in higher plants.
