Responses of root hair development to elevated CO2

Abstract

This review highlights a potential signaling pathway of CO₂-dependent stimulation in root hair development. Elevated CO₂ firstly increases the carbohydrates production, which triggers the auxin or ethylene responsive signal transduction pathways and subsequently stimulates the generation of intracellular nitric oxide (NO). The NO acts on target Ca²⁺ and ion channels and induces activation of MAPK. Meanwhile, reactive oxygen species (ROS) activates cytoplasmic Ca²⁺ channels at the plasma membrane in the apex of the root tip. This complex pathway involves transduction cascades of multiple signals that lead to the fine tuning of epidermal cell initiation and elongation. The results suggest that elevated CO₂ plays an important role in cell differentiation processes at the root epidermis. 

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Caixian Tang from Department of Agricultural Sciences, La Trobe University for critical reading and revision of the manuscript. This work was financially supported by the Project of Transformation Fund for Agricultural Scientific and Technological Achievements of China (2010GB23600669), the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 30871590) and Doctoral Fund of Ministry of Education of China (No. 200803350117).

Figures and Tables

Figure 1 Conceptual model showing the potential elevated-CO₂-target points in the signaling events those lead to the growth of root hairs. Solid arrows indicate links established in the induction of root hair development and broken arrows represent already established links in other systems but yet to be demonstrated in the growth of root hairs. NO, nitric oxide; cGMP, cyclic GMP; JAs, jasmonates; ROS, reactive oxygen species.

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