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Updated: Jul 18, 2026

Measuring Spatial and Temporal Ca2+ Signals in Arabidopsis Plants
Published on: September 2, 2014
Cold transiently activates calcium-permeable channels in Arabidopsis mesophyll cells
Armando Carpaneto1, Natalya Ivashikina, Victor Levchenko
1Department of Molecular Plant Physiology and Biophysics, Julius-von-Sachs Institute of Biosciences, Wurzburg University, 97082 Wurzburg, Germany.
Abstract:
Living organisms are capable of discriminating thermal stimuli from noxious cold to noxious heat. For more than 30 years, it has been known that plant cells respond to cold with a large and transient depolarization. Recently, using transgenic Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) expressing the calcium-sensitive protein aequorin, an increase in cytosolic calcium following cold treatment was observed. Applying the patch-clamp technique to Arabidopsis mesophyll protoplasts, we could identify a transient plasma membrane conductance induced by rapid cooling. This cold-induced transient conductance was characterized as an outward rectifying 33 pS nonselective cation channel. The permeability ratio between calcium and cesium was 0.7, pointing to a permeation pore >3.34 A (ø of cesium). Our experiments thus provide direct evidence for the predicted but not yet measured cold-activated calcium-permeable channel in plants.
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