The peptide primary messengers regulate embryonic development, cell growth and many other activities in animal cells. But recent evidence verified that peptide primary messengers are also involved in plant defense responses, the recognition between pollen and stigma and keep the balance between cell proliferation and differentiations in shoot apical meristems. Those results suggest that plants may actually make wide use of peptide primary messengers, both in embryonic development and late life when they rally their cells to defend against pathogens and insect pests. The recent advance in those aspects is reviewed.
Water stress-induced ABA accumulation plays a key role in the root to shoot communication and/or the cell to cell signaling under the soil stresses. The signaling of the water stress itself that leads to the accumulation, however, is less known. In this study, we subjected the roots of Malus hupehensis seedlings to water stress treatment and investigated the ABA accumulation in relation to protein phos-phorylation. Our results showed that ABA accumulation could be substantially triggered in 40 min and reached 4 folds in 100 min after treatment with 30% PEG 6000 (polyethylene glycol). The water stress treatment also led to a substantial enhancement of total kinase activity, assessed with histone-111 as substrate, in 15 min and a maximum enhancement in 30 min before it declined to initial level. The Ca2+-dependent kinase activity showed a similar, if not more sensitive, trend. When the roots were fed with labeled 32P-ATP, water stress enhanced the labeling of proteins, which showed a maximum labeling at
ZHANG Dapeng, YANG Hongqiang, JIA Wensuo & HUANG Conglin1. Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology of Fruit Trees, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100094, China
