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Poster

Session: Session 2 Presenting Authors at Posters (Odds)

P-421 - Optogenetically orchestrated Ca2+ signals initiate plant immune response

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
13:30 - 15:15  
Location: Confex Hall 3
Plant Regulation of biotic and abiotic stress – trade-offs

    Presenting Author(s)

  • MD

    Meiqi Ding

    The Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Beijing, Beijing, China (People's Republic)

    • Author(s)

  • YZ

    Yang Zhou

    zhengzhou university
    Zheng zhou, Henan, China (People's Republic)

  • DB

    Dirk Becker

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

  • SY

    Shang Yang

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

  • RH

    Rainer Hedrich

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

  • GN

    Georg Nagel

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

  • SG

    Shiqiang Gao

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

  • KK

    Kai Konrad

    University of Wuerzburg
    Wuerzburg, Bayern, Germany

When threatened, sessile plants trigger a complex defense signaling network including cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]cyt) increases, plasma membrane depolarization, reactive oxygen species (ROS) signals. The mechanisms by which specific signaling elements dictate defined physiological outcomes remain poorly understood. Our recently established methodology employed an optogenetic approach to elicit individual of those signaling elements and explore specific physiological responses encoded. Here a genetically engineered Channelrhodopsin-2 variant XXM 2.0 with high Ca2+ conductivity was functionally expressed in Nicotiana tabacum to orchestrate Ca2+ signals. Together with XXM 2.0, a light-gated anion channel ACR1 2.0 was utilized to simultaneously induce plasma membrane depolarization and facilitate anion effluxes.Both channels triggered comparable membrane depolarizations, yet they led to markedly different physiological responses. Our optogenetic approach unveiled that sustained plasma membrane depolarization alone is insufficient to elicit specific physiological outcomes. Similar to the immune response triggered by Pseudomonas syringae, the XXM 2.0-induced [Ca2+]cyt elevations stimulated immune responses, including ROS production, salicylic acid accumulation, and transcriptional reprogramming. This minimal-invasive optogenetics approach offers the potential to precisely manipulate particular point (e.g., pH, ROS, etc.) when study the complex defense signaling network.