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CELL BIOLOGY AND SIGNAL TRANSDUCTION

Calcium Entry Mediated by GLR3.3, an Arabidopsis Glutamate Receptor with a Broad Agonist Profile^1,[W],[OA]

Department of Botany, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

The amino acids glutamate (Glu) and glycine (Gly) trigger large, rapid rises in cytosolic Ca²⁺ concentration and a concomitant rise in membrane potential (depolarization) in plants. The possibility that plant homologs of neuronal ionotropic glutamate receptors mediate these neuron-like ionic responses was tested in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seedlings using a combination of Ca²⁺ measurements, electrophysiology, and reverse genetics. The membrane depolarization triggered by Glu was greatly reduced or completely blocked in some conditions by mutations in GLR3.3, one of the 20 GLR genes in Arabidopsis. The same mutations completely blocked the associated rise in cytosolic Ca²⁺. These results genetically demonstrate the participation of a glutamate receptor in the rapid ionic responses to an amino acid. The GLR3.3-independent component of the depolarization required Glu concentrations above 25 µM, did not display desensitization, and was strongly suppressed by increasing extracellular pH. It is suggested to result from H⁺-amino acid symport. Six amino acids commonly present in soils (Glu, Gly, alanine, serine, asparagine, and cysteine) as well as the tripeptide glutathione (-glutamyl-cysteinyl-Gly) were found to be strong agonists of the GLR3.3-mediated responses. All other amino acids induced a small depolarization similar to the non-GLR, putative symporter component and in most cases evoked little or no Ca²⁺ rise. From these results it may be concluded that sensing of six amino acids in the rhizosphere and perhaps extracellular peptides is coupled to Ca²⁺ signaling through a GLR-dependent mechanism homologous to a fundamental component of neuronal signaling.

² Present address: Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, 975 North Warson Road, St. Louis, MO 63132.

The author responsible for distribution of materials integral to the findings presented in this article in accordance with the policy described in the Instructions for Authors (www.plantphysiol.org) is: Edgar P. Spalding (spalding{at}wisc.edu).

^[W] The online version of this article contains Web-only data.

^[OA] Open Access articles can be viewed online without a subscription.

www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/doi/10.1104/pp.106.088989

^* Corresponding author; e-mail spalding{at}wisc.edu; fax 608–262–7509.

Received August 29, 2006; accepted September 20, 2006; published September 29, 2006.

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