Expression of Arabidopsis MCA1 enhanced mechanosensitive channel activity in theXenopus laevisoocyte plasma membrane

• DOI: 10.4161/psb.20783
• Publication Date: 2012-09-01T19:23:59Z
• Authors: Takuya Furuichi; Hidetoshi Iida; Masahiro Sokabe; Hitoshi Tatsumi
• Keywords: Osmotic shock

Higher plants sense and respond to osmotic mechanical stresses such as turgor, touch, flexure gravity. Mechanosensitive (MS) channels, directly activated by tension in the cell membrane cytoskeleton, are supposed be involved volume regulation under hypotonic conditions sensing of these based on electrophysiological pharmacological studies. However, limited progress has been achieved molecular identification plant MS channels. Here, we show that MCA1 (mid1-complementing activity 1; a putative mechanosensitive Ca2+-permeable channel Arabidopsis thaliana) increased plasma Xenopus laevis oocytes. The functional kinetic properties were examined using oocytes expression system, which showed MCA1-dependent cation currents hypo-osmotic shock or stretch produced pipette suction. Single-channel analyses suggest encodes possible with conductance 34 pS.