Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 26, 2025
09:33
Imaging Approaches to Assessments of Toxicological Oxidative Stress Using Genetically-encoded Fluorogenic Sensors
Published on: February 7, 2018
7.5K
A genetically encoded fluorescent heme sensor detects free heme in plants
Bingxiao Wen1, Bernhard Grimm1
1Institute of Biology/Plant Physiology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 10115 Berlin, Germany.
Plant Physiology
|May 19, 2024
Summary
Researchers used a genetically encoded heme sensor (HS1) to track free heme distribution in plant cells. This method reveals how free heme moves within plant cells, aiding in understanding its roles and potential toxicity.
Area of Science:
- Plant molecular biology
- Cellular biochemistry
Background:
- Heme is essential for plants, synthesized in plastids and distributed throughout cells.
- A small pool of free, unbound heme exists, potentially toxic and involved in regulation.
- The subcellular distribution of this free heme pool in plants is poorly understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the distribution and dynamics of free heme within plant subcellular compartments.
- To validate a genetically encoded heme sensor (HS1) for measuring free heme levels.
- To explore the mobilization and potential toxicity of free heme in plants.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the genetically encoded heme sensor 1 (HS1) and a variant (HS1(M7A)) with lower heme affinity.
- Applied biochemical and genetic approaches to manipulate cellular heme content.
- Verified HS1 utility in various subcellular compartments of Arabidopsis and tobacco plants (transiently and stably transformed).
Main Results:
- Demonstrated the HS1 sensor's ability to measure relative free heme amounts across different plant subcellular compartments.
- Successfully traced the distribution and dynamics of free heme using HS1.
- Verified the sensor's functionality in both Arabidopsis and tobacco models.
Conclusions:
- The HS1 heme sensor provides a valuable tool for studying free heme distribution and dynamics in plants.
- This approach offers insights into heme mobilization and the role of free heme in cellular processes.
- Facilitates the identification of mutants affecting subcellular heme allocation and the validation of free heme's importance.
Related Concept Videos
02:00Photoreceptors and Plant Responses to Light
20.3K
Light plays a significant role in regulating the growth and development of plants. In addition to providing energy for photosynthesis, light provides other important cues to regulate a range of developmental and physiological responses in plants.
20.3K
01:25Cell Signaling in Plants
5.6K
Plant cells communicate to coordinate their cycle of growth, flowering and fruiting, and activities in roots, shoots, and leaves in response to the changing environmental conditions. Plant signaling is distinct from animal signaling. Plants primarily utilize enzyme-linked receptors, whereas the largest class of cell-surface receptors in animals are G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). Unlike animals, receptor tyrosine kinases are rare in plants. Instead, plants have a diverse class of...
5.6K
02:11Reporter Genes
11.3K
Reporter genes are a type of protein-coding gene that are often tagged to a gene of interest. Once inside a target cell, reporter genes usually produce visually identifiable characteristics like fluorescence and luminescence when expressed along with the gene of interest. Thus, reporter genes “report” the presence or absence of genes of interest in an organism, determine the gene expression pattern, or track the physical location of a DNA segment or protein in the cell.
11.3K
02:45Biological Clocks and Seasonal Responses
34.6K
The circadian—or biological—clock is an intrinsic, timekeeping, molecular mechanism that allows plants to coordinate physiological activities over 24-hour cycles called circadian rhythms. Photoperiodism is a collective term for the biological responses of plants to variations in the relative lengths of dark and light periods. The period of light-exposure is called the photoperiod.
34.6K