Plants integrate information from physiological and environmental signals during growth and development. The regulatory networks that have evolved to generate the appropriate cellular responses in answer to these signals often include a transient increase in intracellular calcium which transduces the sensed signal to the molecules that interpret the stimuli. This change in intracellular calcium takes place through the combined activities of proteins that allow calcium to enter the cytoplasm after perception of a signal and those that ultimately remove calcium from the cytoplasm to restore cellular homeostasis. The proposed studies are focused on identifying one of the proteins responsible for increasing cytoplasmic calcium levels in response to physiological and environmental cues. Identification of this protein at the molecular level will be critical for understanding the specificity of calcium signaling in plants and ultimately for designing strategies to modify plant growth and development.
