review · Plant Cell & Environment
Heavy metals present a significant environmental stress to plants, disrupting multiple cellular processes. Exposure to heavy metals prompts the excessive production of reactive oxygen species. While high levels of reactive oxygen species can damage plant tissues, these molecules also function as essential messengers within cellular signalling networks. Among these mechanisms is the mitogen-activated protein kinase cascade, which converts external signals into intracellular defence reactions, hormone regulation, and cell cycle adjustments. The specific mechanisms through which heavy metals trigger mitogen-activated protein kinase pathways remain insufficiently documented. This review examines heavy metal-induced reactive oxygen species signalling, tracing how these signals activate protein kinase cascades and downstream transcription factors that govern plant stress responses. Furthermore, the review outlines an experimental workflow designed to identify and characterise genes linked to mitogen-activated protein kinases and assess their functional roles during heavy metal exposure.
Heavy metal contamination in soil poses a severe threat to plant health and agricultural productivity. Understanding how plants detect toxic metals and initiate molecular defence responses is essential for developing crops capable of surviving contaminated environments. Clarifying the signalling networks that govern these defences provides foundational biological knowledge necessary for improving plant tolerance and resilience to environmental contamination.
This work is at an early conceptual and discovery stage. By proposing a workflow to characterise kinase-associated stress genes, it provides a methodological foundation for plant scientists and agricultural biotechnology researchers. In the longer term, identifying these genetic components could aid molecular breeding programmes and crop genetic engineering aimed at enhancing heavy metal tolerance, though practical commercial applications remain distant from deployment.
AI-generated from the published abstract. Always read the original work before citing.
Due to their stationary nature, plants are exposed to a diverse range of biotic and abiotic stresses, of which heavy metal (HM) stress poses one of the most detrimental abiotic stresses, targeting diverse plant processes. HMs instigate the overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and to mitigate the adverse effects of ROS, plants induce multiple defence mechanisms. Besides the negative implications of overproduction of ROS, these molecules play a multitude of signalling roles in plants, acting as a central player in the complex signalling network of cells. One of the ROS-associated signalling mechanisms is the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) cascade, a signalling pathway which transduces extracellular stimuli into intracellular responses. Plant MAPKs have been implicated in signalling involved in stress response, phytohormone regulation, and cell cycle cues. However, the influence of various HMs on MAPK activation has not been well documented. In this review, we address and summarise several aspects related to various HM-induced ROS signalling. Additionally, we touch on how these signals activate the MAPK cascade and the downstream transcription factors that influence plant responses to HMs. Moreover, we propose a workflow that could characterise genes associated with MAPKs and their roles during plant HM stress responses.
This page summarises published work. The authoritative version sits with the publisher.
DOI: 10.1111/pce.14926
Is something wrong with this record? Report it or request removal.
Discussion
Have you built on this work, tried to replicate it, or seen it applied in practice? Share what you know. Verified researchers and MARATTO™ domain experts can open a discussion, and any member can reply. Contributions are reviewed before they appear.
No discussion yet. Open the first thread.
New to MARATTO™? Create a free account.
